Honors planned for Irma Hunter Brown

Irma Hunter Brown — who first moved to Arkansas to enroll at Shorter College in North Little Rock and later became the first Black woman elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives and the first Black woman elected to the Arkansas Senate — is on a path to be honored by the state Legislature.

Among the resolutions going through the standard legislative process is Senate Resolution 39, which honors her legacy.

Brown, 84, a resident of Little Rock, was born in Tampa, Fla., and grew up in Forsythe, Ga. Brown moved to North Little Rock to attend Shorter College, according to the resolution and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. She received her associate’s degree in 1958 from Shorter College. Afterward, she continued her education at Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College, now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1960 with a double major in history and government and a minor in education.

She taught in the Memphis public schools from 1961 to 1964 and the Washington, D.C., public schools from 1965 to 1969 before returning to Arkansas.

Brown served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1981 to 1998 and in the Arkansas Senate from 2003 to 2008. She was a founder of the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus, becoming its first chairperson, and a 2019 member of the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

Brown is recognized by a plaque on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail.