There When We Needed Him: Wiley Austin Branton, Civil Rights Warrior

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Effa Stuart Wiley, maternal grandmother and role modelmentor to a young Wiley A. Branton. She demonstrated the importance of incorporating civil rights activism in one’s life. With permission of the Branton family. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page A James A.Wiley, maternal grandfather, whose hard work and business sense helped to mold the characteristics that would make Wiley Branton so valuable to civil rights leaders. With permission of the Branton family. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page B The Wiley’s family home at  Alabama Street, Pine Bluff. Having his grandparents and uncles living next door gave young Wiley and his siblings the security of a close, extended family. With permission of the Branton family. Leo A. Branton Sr. (right), and Joseph Wiley (Wiley’s uncle, left) in front of what is thought to be one of the first cabs of the Branton Cab Company, about . With permission of the Branton family. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page C Leo Branton and Pauline Wiley Branton about the time of their marriage in . With permission of the Branton family. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page D Wiley A. Branton, anticipating his future. With permission of the Branton family. Wiley A. Branton, about the time of his graduation from high school in 1941. With permission of the Branton family. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page E Wiley A. Branton, serving his country in the U.S.Army during World War II. With permission of the Branton family. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page F Wiley and Lucille Branton in the early 1950s. With permission of the Branton family. The Branton family, Christmas 1947, all safe home from the war. Leo Sr. and Pauline in front, rear: Leo Jr., Paul, Julia,Wiley, Sterling. With permission of the Branton family. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page G Preparing petitions to Arkansas school districts following Brown v. Board of Education in summer 1955. Left to right: the Reverend J. C. Crenchaw (president, Little Rock NAACP),Wiley A. Branton (chair, NAACP State Conference, Legal Redress Committee), Mrs. Daisy Bates (president,Arkansas State Conference, NAACP), Mildred Bond (Roxborough) (NAACP fieldworker). With permission of Janis F . Kearney, owner-publisher,State Press News, Pine Bluff,Arkansas. Wiley A. Branton holding photo of cross that was burned at the Wiley and Branton family plot, Bellwood Cemetery, Pine Bluff, during the 1957 Little Rock Central High Crisis.Another cross was burned on the lawn of his home. With permission of the Branton family. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page H Wiley A. Branton and Thurgood Marshall, director-general, NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc., outside the clerk’s office, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, St. Louis,August 4, 1958. With permission of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page I Wiley A. Branton, speaking before an audience in the late 1950s. With permission of the Branton family. Wiley A. Branton and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. exhibiting a phonograph record of the 1963 March on Washington program that included King’s “I have a Dream” speech.The recording was offered for sale by the Council of United Civil Rights Leaders to raise money for civil rights groups. From the Wiley A. Branton Papers. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page J Wiley A. Branton andVice President Hubert H. Humphrey, date unknown, worked together in 1965 for the President’s Council on Equal Opportunity. From theWiley A. Branton Papers. 2KILPATRICK_pages_A-P.qxd 6/27/07 10:18 AM Page K Wiley A. Branton and President Lyndon B. Johnson in a meeting at which the president requested Branton to become his “point person” on civil rights as a special assistant within the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, September 24, 1965. From the archives of the LBJ Library, image byYoichi Okamoto. Wiley A. Branton, in the procession to his investiture as dean, Howard...