Henry Clay Yerger High School Museum

“Preserving Our Legacy”

As we celebrate Black History Month, we salute and lift up one of our own Hope natives, Dr. Lynda Phillips Johnson. She was appointed to the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission (JDDC). We salute Dr. Johnson because she is the first to be appointed from Hemptstead County appointed to this position since its inception in 1991.

The Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission is a state constitutionally mandated agency in Arkansas. The commission has jurisdiction regarding the conduct of full, part-time and special judges and justices of the supreme court, court of appeals, circuit courts, districts, city courts and police courts. They also have jurisdiction over referees, special masters, court commissioners and magistrates.

The commission consists of nine members, three judges, three lawyers and three members of the general public. Members have six year terms and may hold two full terms. The judges must be members of either the court of appeals, circuit court or municipal court. They are appointed by the supreme court. The three lawyers must be licensed to practice in Arkansas, and must not be current or former judges. One is appointed by the attorney general, one by the president of the senate, and one by the speaker of the House of Representatives.The three members of the public must not be lawyers or current or former judges. Theyare appointed by the governor.  Each member has an alternative member appointed under similar terms.

Dr. Johnson was also previously appointed a commissioner to the board of Black History Committee by governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders with a term of seven years expiring 2030. She was appointed to the higher education commission board, by then Governor Mike Huckabee where she served for seven years, three of those years as the board secretary.

In August of 2025, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award for education from the Arkansas Martine Luther King, Jr. Commission that she said, “was my most important achievement of my career, education.”

Dr. Johnson, we thank you for your service to the citizens across the entire state of Arkansas and we appreciate your willingness to sacrifice your time and effort to benefit those , not just on this committee but for those who have no voices.

Dr. Johnson is a1969 graduate of the last graduating class of the Historic Yerger High School. She is the daughter of Hope’s life-long residents and Social community supporters the late Lurlean Cannon Phillips, and granddaughter of Reece and Inez Cannon.