Judith Kilpatrick was a professor of law at the University of Arkansas from 1994 to 2009. She received her juris doctor degree from the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law, and her LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees from Columbia University School of Law in 1992 and 1999, respectively. During her time at the University of Arkansas, Kilpatrick began researching prominent African American attorney, civil rights figure, and one of the first African American graduates of the University of Arkansas School of Law, Wiley Austin Branton. Kilpatrick published several articles about Branton, eventually publishing the book, There When We Needed Him: Wiley Austin Branton, Civil Rights Warrior in 2007.

In the course of her research on Branton, Kilpatrick became interested in other prominent African American attorneys from Arkansas. The product of that research was the website, www.arkansasblacklawyers.uark.edu. The website features biographies of Wiley A. Branton and other prominent African American lawyers such as Joseph Robert (J. R.) Booker, L. Clifford Davis, William Harold Flowers, Scipio Africanus Jones, and many others. The materials in this collection were accumulated during Kilpatrick’s research.