FAYETTEVILLE — Laurinburg native Allen W. Rogers will receive the Wiley A. Branton Award from the National Bar Association on Friday.
The Wiley A. Branton Award honors individuals who have contributed to the legal profession, promoted the need for diversity and equal opportunity and are leaders within the communities they serve. It was first bestowed by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee in 1989. It takes its name from Wiley A. Branton, Sr., an attorney whose life embodied civil rights advocacy.
Each year, approximately 800 to 1,000 attorneys and business leaders attend this event to honor recipients of the Branton award. The award is presented to members of the legal and civil rights advocacy community whose lifetime efforts exemplify Branton’s commitment to pro bono service, which is at the heart of the Committee’s mission.
Rogers has operated a private law practice since 1991. He is a graduate of Scotland High School and served as president of the class of 1978.
Rogers said he has spent his personal and professional lifetime “addressing issues and raising consciousness by speaking truth to power when it is not comfortable, or politically correct, or popular, or personally expedient.” He said his life is a testament to his motto, “Don’t just make a dollar. Make a difference.”
He attended Howard University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in political science, from 1978 through 1982, and was a member of the Honors Program, Reserve Officer Training Corps, Alpha Phi Alpha and Alpha Phi Alpha Dean of Pledges.
Rogers graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Juris Doctor in 1985. He then went on to attend the University of Virginia, Judge Advocate Generals School, in Charlottesville, Virginia where he was commissioned as a United States Army Judge Advocate (JAG) Lawyer.
Rogers served as an Assistant United States Attorney, Trial Counsel, Chief of Legal Assistance and Trial Defense Counsel in the United States Army from 1986 to 1991. He is currently the sole owner of The Rogers Law Firm in downtown Fayetteville. He was named Up and Coming Best of 2011 Fayetteville Traffic Attorney.
Rogers is a member of the North Carolina State Bar, Pennsylvania State Bar, National Bar Association, North Carolina Advocates for Justice, President of Fayetteville Area Coalition for Equality, Member of the Cumberland County Black Lawyers Association and a Member of the NAACP.
Rogers’ parents, Zack Rogers and Mary Rogers, live in Laurinburg.