By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — A journalist, an AIDS researcher, a gospel recording artist and a late civil rights leader will be among this year’s inductees into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

Six people will receive the honor at the 17th annual Black Hall of Fame Ceremony Banquet on Oct. 17 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, Charles Stewart, chairman of the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, announced at a news conference today.

“We are extremely excited about this year’s induction ceremony, as we are previous ones, but this year I think that we are particularly excited because of the economic challenges that the country is facing,” Stewart said.

“In spite of that, the Black Hall of Fame this year has gained a number of new sponsors and new support, and I think it speaks well to the esteem in which the people of Arkansas hold the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame,” he said.

This year’s honorees are:

—Bishop Charles E. Blake, a native of North Little Rock. Blake serves as presiding bishop of the 6 million-member Church of God in Christ, one of the largest denominations in the country, and as pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, which counts Denzel Washington and Magic Johnson among its 24,000 members.

—Erma Glasco Davis, who was born in Keo and grew up in Little Rock. A former teacher, counselor and administrator in Detroit schools, Davis returned to Arkansas in 1990 and has been involved with numerous civic organizations, serving on the boards of Central High Museum and the Arkansas Humanities Council, and for two terms as chairman of the Historic Arkansas Museum Foundation.

—Delores Handy-Brown, a Little Rock native. Handy-Brown was the first black television news anchor in Arkansas and is now a journalist with WBUR, National Public Radio’s Boston station. She has won four Emmy Awards for her work in television in Washington and Boston.

—Dr. James E.K. Hildreth, a native of Camden. The first black Rhodes Scholar from Arkansas, Hildreth has degrees from Harvard and Oxford universities and John Hopkins Medical School, and is now director of the Center for Aids Health Disparities Research at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. He has published more than 80 scientific articles and holds seven patents based on his research.

—The Rev. Smokie Norful, who was born in Little Rock and grew up in Pine Bluff. Currently pastor of Victory Cathedral Worship Center in Romeoville, Ill., Norful won a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album and performed that year for President George W. Bush in a concert honoring Black Music Month. He will perform at next month’s Hall of Fame ceremony.

—The late Samuel Woodrow Williams, who was born in Sparkman and spent most of his formative years in Dermott. As a professor and chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Williams taught the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and exposed him to Henry David Thoreau’s “Essay on Civil Disobedience.” He was one of the founders, with King and others, of the Southern Christian Leadership Council and was involved in some of the seminal protests of the civil rights movement.

The master of ceremonies for the program will be West Memphis native T.J. Holmes. A former news anchor for KTHV in Little Rock, Holmes currently anchors the weekend morning edition of “CNN Newsroom.”

Ticket information is available on the Web site of the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

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On the Net:
www.arblackhalloffame.org