Negative taken of Col. Willard A. Hawkins and John Gammon from the pamphlet "Building for the People. A Factual Report of Progress: the Rockefeller Administration" produced by Rockefeller for Governor Committee, Little Rock, Ark., ca. 1968. Col. Willard A. Hawkins, director of State Selective Service, sits with John Gammon, a draft appeal board member. John Gammon (1903 - October 11, 1988) was the grandson of a slave and a native of Crittenden County, Arkansas. Gammon graduated from Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal (A.M. & N.) College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff) in Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, Arkansas, where he played football. A pioneer catfish farmer and philanthropist, Gammon became the first black member of the Arkansas Stabilization and Conservation Committee. He was named a member of the National Advisory Committee on Agricultural Research during the Roosevelt administration and was elected to the Agricultural Hall of Fame. In 1948, Gammon organized the Negro division of the Arkansas Farm Bureau which he served as president until 1965. President Richard Nixon named him to the five-man advisory board of the Commodity Credit Corporation in 1969. He was a member of President Nixon's Committee for Employment of the Handicapped and served on the Selective Service Appeal Board for Eastern Arkansas. Awards Gammon received include: the Sertoma Club "Service to Mankind Award"; the Headliner Award presented by the Memphis Gridiron Club; elected as First Congressional District delegate to the 1972 National Democratic Convention in Miami, Fla. He organized the first Negro Poultry Cooperative in Arkansas and established the John Gammon Foundation in 1975 which awards scholarships to county college students (both black and white) preparing for a career in medicine, engineering or architecture. Col. Willard A. Hawkins was born July 1, 1914 and died August 18, 1973. Hawkins was buried in the Little National Cemetery in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas.
