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Stuart C. Pryce was an Arkansas native, born a slave in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) about December 1855. He attended high school in Pine Bluff. Pryce studied law under George Napier Perkins some time between 1891 and 1900 in Oklahoma and practiced law in Oklahoma for one year before returning to Arkansas. This is the second instance found where an African-American Arkansas lawyer had been trained by another African-American lawyer (see Nelson Nichols).
The 1900 census listed Pryce’s age as 44, his occupation as attorney, and his marital status as single. In 1910, Pryce was still single, but rented his own home. In 1917, he was listed in the Pine Bluff City Directory as U.S. land attorney and notary public, but he had left that position by 1920. He is noted as an attorney in Pine Bluff City Directories until 1929. No record of admission to practice before the state supreme court was found, so Pryce probably was admitted only by the local circuit court.
The 1920 census indicated he was married to Mary, 38 years old, and still rented his home. Pryce died on December 27, 1929.
Sources: Judith Kilpatrick, “(EXTRA)Ordinary Men: African-American Lawyers and Civil Rights in Arkansas Before 1950,” 53 Ark. Law Rev. 299, 347 n349, 347 n352, 373-74, 380 n626, 394 (2000); “Colored Section”, Henderson's Illustrated Industrial Souvenir, 1906; Papers of the NAACP, Pine Bluff, 1924- 1928, Part 1, G13, Branch Files, 1/8/1926-1/ 20/1928 (Membership Reports dtd 1/5/1926 and 1/14/1928); Jefferson Chancery Court, 1923- Waiver and Complaint in Equity; 1900, 1910, 1920 U.S. Census for Arkansas;