Political Quotes

“on August 17, 2002, Arkansas lost a great public servant and a fighter for social justice with the passing of Jerry Donal Jewell, a Little Rock dentist who made political history when he was elected in 1992 as the first African American president pro tem of the Arkansas State Senate. A sharecropper's son, Dr. Jewell, who was born during the Great Depression, died at the age of 71 in a Little Rock hospital after a brief battle with cancer. Born in Crittenden County, Arkansas, Dr. Jewell attended public school in West Memphis. He later earned his B.S. degree from AM&N College, which is now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and his doctorate of dental surgery degree from Meharry Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee. He continued to practice dentistry for over 30 years in Little Rock until his death. Dr. Jewell was the first African American since reconstruction elected to the State Senate for the State of Arkansas. Until his election in 1973, no African American has been elected to the State Senate in the State of Arkansas in 80 years.”