Retired educator to address Democrats

Retired educator, and life member of the NAACP and secretary of Branch 6013, Elmer Beard, will lead the discussion at Brown Bag Lunch at noon Monday at Garland County Democratic Headquarters, 608 W. Grand Ave.

Beard received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Arkansas Baptist College, taught English there and was dean of men. He later earned a master’s degree from Henderson State University. He demonstrated for fair housing while attending the University of Madison.

Beard was appointed to a Hot Springs bi- racial committee and then was elected to eight terms as city councilman. In 1975, he was listed as one of 40 “most outstanding AfricanAmericans in Arkansas.” He is documenting the struggles and successes of black candidates who have run for public office in Hot Springs from 1954 to the present in a booklet, “A Study of African- American Candidates Filing for Public Office Between 1954 and 2010,” which documents the struggles to get African- Americans registered to vote for the first time and to elect their own officials in their own neighborhoods.

A life member of Recognizing Everyone’s Gift and Respecting Diversity, Pleasant Street Neighborhood Association and Webb Community Center, he is a member of the Garland County Democratic Committee. He was a member of the Council for the Liberation of Blacks in Hot Springs, an organization which “protested citywide elections, at that time, where one person could live anywhere in the city and run for office for anywhere else in the city and get elected.”

Brown Bag Lunch discussions and a continuing series of public information presentations take place weekly. Democrats and independents are welcome.

Call the Democratic Headquarters, 624- 0300, from 10 a. m. to 2 p. m. Monday – Friday for information.