Excerpt - U.S. District Court Judge George Howard Jr. of Pine Bluff, whose tenacity against racial injustice played a major role in prompting and defining his history-making legal career, died early Saturday at Jefferson Regional Medical Center. Howard, 82, Arkansas’ first black federal judge, had been battling failing health for some time. “Judge Howard was a lawyer’s lawyer and a truly outstanding judge,” said Pine Bluff attorney Robert Morehead, who began practicing law in 1970. “He helped so many people both in his work with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and as an attorney. He...