THE FRONT Q&A
WHAT’S IN A NAME? JUSTYCE YUILLE MEETS HER DESTINY.
We can thank God and Grandma Hazel for 23-year-old Justyce Yuille’s career plans. The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville graduate ships out to law school this fall with a mission to secure equity, understanding and justice in her native Arkansas. One of 10 recipients of this year’s NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s MarshallMotley scholarships, Yuille earned a full law school scholarship in exchange for her commitment to devoting the first eight years of her career to practicing civil rights law in service to Black communities in the South. The granddaughter of 97-year-old Hazel Bogard Fingers, a past president of the Little Rock NAACP chapter, Yuille braids her inherited passion for civil rights with a deep faith. You were born for this, right? Has your name shaped your career path? What’s interesting is that my dad said he named me Justyce because God spoke to him and told him I was going to bring justice to lots of people’s lives.
she was president of the NAACP chapter in Little Rock and helped to integrate all-white Bishop Street. She told me a story about how the KKK surrounded her home and tried to force her out of the neighborhood. That story reminds me of the fact that justice work is really important. Despite the threats on her life she continued to do this work. So I am going to do this work because God called me to do this, and also because of Grandma Hazel.
FAVORITE MOVIES TO RELAX TO: “X-Men: Apocalypse,” “The Greatest Showman” and “Encanto” FAVORITE SCRIPTURE: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” When I get nervous or anxious, that resonates.
Spirituality seems to be a huge part of your life. I grew up in the church. When I was in Little Rock I was at Word of Outreach Christian Academy. The foundation for everything was God. We learned scriptures and Bible stories, we learned our ABCs through Bible scriptures. Every day we went to church, and when I moved to Houston I still attended Bible studies, I sang in the choir and I was a praise dancer. God has always been a part of my life.
Where will you go for law school? Tell me about your Arkansas ties. I haven’t decided yet where I’m going, I’m from Little Rock. I’m the youngest girl but I’m committed to staying in the South TIP FOR SELF-PRESERVATION: To protect my in my family. I have two older sisters, an and serving communities in the South. mental health, I personally am learning to say “no” older brother and a younger brother. But And then I want to build my foundation more. I went to high school in Texas. So half of in Arkansas. I really want to build up my life was in Little Rock, the other half my community in Little Rock, to be a was in Houston. It’s really because of civil rights attorney and then hopefully God that I went to UA. God called me back to Arkansas. UA ended up a judge. So wherever I go, I’m coming back. There’s lots to be done in being the only school I applied to for undergrad, and I got accepted. Arkansas. Did you plan a career in law all along? I always knew I wanted to go to law school. My undergraduate degrees are in criminal justice, political science and African American studies, with a minor in legal studies. All my professors played a role in where I am today, but the professor who really helped me solidify the fact that I want to be a civil rights attorney was Dr. [Alphonso] Grant, who passed away a year and a half ago. I took two classes with him, and he had us read James Baldwin and W.E.B. Du Bois. We talked about race a lot and he constantly challenged my mind. He told me, “Justyce, there’s always more to learn.” It also runs in the family, right? I will be the first lawyer in my family. But my Grandma Hazel is 97, and
What problems do you want to tackle specifically? I want to address voting rights, I want to address incarceration, and I always want to address education. Those three issues, amongst others, are something I just continuously see. Not only do I want to help register people to vote, but I also want to try to tackle any laws that are discriminatory, that keep people from voting. Growing up in Little Rock, you would see a lot of racial discrimination on a daily basis. That’s the realization I came to. My neighbors, my community, they never really sought justice because they felt that they couldn’t get it. I myself have been a victim of racism. I have seen my father be a victim of racism. I plan on building a practice right where I grew up and really trying to seek justice, to fight for justice, for so many individuals who felt like that wasn’t an option for them. — Austin Bailey ARKTIMES.COM
JUNE 2022 9
