Christopher C. Mercer, one of the six Black students who racially integrated the School of Law at the University of Arkansas in 1948, has died in Little Rock. He was 88 years old.
A native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, he supported himself while in law school by teaching at a local high school. After graduating from law school and passing the bar exam, he became active in the civil rights movement, acting as an adviser to the Little Rock Nine, the students who racially integrated Central High School in 1957. He was the Arkansas field secretary for the NAACP.
Mercer was the first African American to serve as a deputy state prosecutor in the South. He practiced law for more than 58 years.
I was sad to hear this and yet it reminded me of the importance of remembering those who laid the foundations for the rights people take for granted today , the sacrifices they made and our duty to challenge every attempt to erode those rights under the guise of austerity measures