in Lewisville, where he would listen to the court proceedings being conducted there. In those days, the court sat only in February and August. and Flowers has lond memories and yet mixed feelings about this experience. He recalls sitting in the
I\W\\llllll(\\ ·\lIlt \~IIII\\
courtroom in February. the room
flU rovt..'l-.l1 .... 111 II
heated by a big potbellied stove surrounded by a sandbox-like contraption to catch ashes and sparks, with blacks seated on one side 01 the room and whites on the other. During the August term, he recalls that it was usually more comfortable to sit outside the building beneath the open court room windows and listen to the proceedings from a cooler vantage point. There, young Harold would listen to the arguments and oratory 01 local attorneys such as Tillman B. Parks, then prosecuting attorney and later U.S. Congressman, and Steve Carrington, among others. He would then return home and conduct mock trials belore his young playmates, practicing the oratorical skills and techniques he had learned. Another early influence was Noah Parden, a well known black attorney whom Flowers met in East SI. Louis, Il1inois at the age 01 14.
flEl ro IlJCSHlr f.lltll\
Flowers, like many blacks 01 his era, had to come to Little Rock to further his education. There he attended Philander Smith for both high school and college. While at Philander Smith, he witnessed a black man being dragged down the streets 01 Little Rock to be lynched and recalls that this horrifying
experience
served
to
further strengthen his resolve to become an attorney. In order to pursue this goaL he traveled to Washington, D.C. where he attended the Robert H. Terrell School 01 Law, an all black law schooL graduating in June 1937. He
returned
to
Arkansas
In
February 1938, having already taken and passed the Arkansas Bar exam in June of 1935. He lormally opened his law office in Pine Bluff in February 1938, in the Masonic Temple Building on the corner 01 Fourth and State Streets in Pine Bluff. This historic building housed the offices of most of the black professionals in Pine Bluff at that time, and was a focal
• The Freedom Pledge
)1\
IIIl \ • \1
flli TO STt"O KlIII!II I IHl" IIl.lIT fl[[10~
Ilnl I IUllll'.U\c.
mI TO (J(MIj[ DUS[ QO 00'011.' M\ (('II \11'
lIIS 1UfT"'l OF FlD.OOJl
I PIIDCl TO I rtIOLD Rlllnll1 """UL tmu,'i:D
Harold Flowers and The Freedom Pledge, 1955
W. Harold (left) and Curtis V. (right) Flowers in 1967 at National Bar Association meeting in Houston. Texas.
point for the black community in Jefferson County and surrounding areas. Flowers recalls that it was
said at that time that you needed only three books to practice law, "an appointment book, a statute book and a receipt book." He remained at the Masonic Temple for 25 years before moving his office to his present location, at 104 South Mulberry Street in Pine Bluff, where he has maintained a private practice to the present date. Although he has been a solo practitioner for most of his prac-
tice. he was associated with two attorneys in the 1950s, Ed Trimble, now deceased, and L. Clifford Davis, now a District Court judge
in Fort Worth, Texas. When Harold Flowers returned to Pine Bluff as a new lawyer in 1938, there were only 12 black attorneys in the entire state. two
in Pine Bluff and the remainder situated in Little Rock.' As a young lawyer, Harold Flowers played the role that his family upbringing. environment and edu-
cational accomplishments had destined him to play, that of crusader for the rights 01 his people, both in and out of the court room. Harold Flowers' experiences over the past 50 years range from being warned by The Ku Klux Klan to leave Arkansas in 1952 to being considered by President Eisenhower for appointment to luly 1985/Arkansas Lawyerll13