April 22, 1949

Silas Hunt died at the Veteran’s Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, from tuberculosis, a possible complication from his World War II injuries. Hunt was the first African-American student admitted to the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) since Reconstruction. He became the first black student to be admitted for graduate or professional studies at any all-white Southern university when he was admitted to the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1948.