The City of Monroe presented a civil rights award to a local attorney whose license to practice law has been suspended.
During the City of Monroe’s 45th annual Martin Luther King Celebration last Thursday, Mayor Oliver Ellis, presented the James Sharp, Jr. Award to attorney Steve Jefferson.
James Sharp is remembered as a local attorney who challenged the 1956 Voter Purge of over 5,000 black voters in Ouachita Parish. That purge paved the way for the election of W.L. “Jack” Howard as mayor in 1956 who was not favored by the city’s black v…
