Linda F. Coleman (born September 27, 1961) is an American judge, attorney, and former lawmaker from the state of Mississippi. She has served as Circuit Court Judge of Mississippi's Eleventh Circuit Court District since 2016. [1]
Linda F. Coleman (born September 27, 1961) is an American judge, attorney, and former lawmaker from the state of Mississippi. She has served as Circuit Court Judge of Mississippi's Eleventh Circuit Court District since 2016. [1]
The seventh of eight children, Coleman received her early education in the public schools of the historically all-Black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. [2] She earned a bachelor's degree in public administration from the University of Mississippi and a Juris Doctor degree from Mississippi College School of Law. [1]
Coleman was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1987 and began her first legal job as a staff attorney for North Mississippi Rural Legal Services (NMRLS) in Clarksdale, Mississippi, providing free services to low-income clients. By 1989, she became managing attorney for NMRLS and served in that role until 1994. She subsequently established her own private law practice, representing the Mississippi towns of Mound Bayou, Coahoma, and Friars Point, and served as attorney for the Bolivar County Board of Supervisors and the Mound Bayou School Board. [1]
Coleman was elected as a Democratic representative for District 29 in the Mississippi House of Representatives in November 1991, defeating a 17-year incumbent, Edward G. "Ed" Jackson. [2] In 1991, only two Black women held seats in the 122-member Mississippi House of Representatives, which included only eight women of any race. [3] That year, Coleman became the third Black woman elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives. She assumed office in 1992 and was re-elected that same year during a special election held to address reapportionment. [4] She was subsequently re-elected to six four-year terms. She served only a portion of her final term before accepting a judicial appointment. During her 25 sessions in the state legislature, Coleman held several leadership positions, including Vice Chairman of the Penitentiary Committee in her first term, Vice Chairman of the Tourism Committee in her fourth term in 2004, Chairman of the House Committee on Fees and Salaries of Public Officers from 2006 to 2012, and Vice Chairman of the Corrections Committee, the successor committee to the former Penitentiary Committee. Her other committee assignments included Appropriations; Corrections; County Affairs; Education; Fees and Salaries of Public Officers; Investigate State Offices; Judiciary A; Judiciary En Banc; Management; Municipalities; Penitentiary; Ports, Harbors and Airports; Public Buildings, Grounds and Lands (now Public Property); Select Committee on Poverty; Tourism; Transportation; and Ways and Means. [5]
In 2008, Coleman cast a historic deciding vote that elected William J. "Billy" McCoy to become Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, a move that "proved to be worth forty chairmanships or vice-chairmanships, further placing African Americans in powerful positions in the state legislature." [6]
On February 21, 2008, she became the first woman to preside as Acting Speaker while the Mississippi House of Representatives was in session. [7] She served in that temporary role on multiple occasions during her legislative career.
In March 2016, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant appointed Coleman as Circuit Court Judge to fill a vacancy on the state's 11th Circuit Court District, which encompasses the counties of Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, and Tunica. [8] During a special election in November 2016, she ran unopposed and was elected to continue in the non-partisan role on the bench. She has since won re-election to two four-year terms in 2018 and 2022. [9]
Coleman is a longtime member of Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church in Mound Bayou. [10]
Bolivar County is a county located on the western border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,985. Its county seats are Rosedale and Cleveland. The county is named in honor of Simón Bolívar, early 19th-century leader of the liberation of several South American territories from Spain.
Mound Bayou is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,533 at the 2010 census, down from 2,102 in 2000. It was founded as an independent black community in 1887 by former slaves led by Isaiah Montgomery. Mound Bayou Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Cleveland is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 11,199 as of the 2020 United States Census.
Aaron Henry was an American civil rights leader, politician, and head of the Mississippi branch of the NAACP. He was one of the founders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party which tried to seat their delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
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Katie Beatrice Hall was an American educator in Gary, Indiana, and a politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1982 to 1985. When Hall was sworn into federal office on November 2, 1982, she became the first black woman from Indiana elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Hall represented Indiana's 1st Congressional District in the final months of the 97th Congress and an entire two-year term in the 98th Congress from 1983 to 1985. She is best known for sponsoring legislation and leading efforts on the floor of the U.S. House in 1983 to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday after previous efforts had failed. H.R. 3706 to establish the third Monday in January as a federal holiday in King's honor was introduced in July 1983 and passed in the House on August 2, 1983. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law on November 2, 1983.
John F. Kennedy Memorial High School was a public secondary school in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, United States, serving grades 7–12. At the end of its life it was in the North Bolivar Consolidated School District, and was formerly in the Mound Bayou Public School District.
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Derrick Terrell Simmons is an American politician and trial lawyer serving as a Democratic member of the Mississippi Senate for the 12th district since 2011. He is the Minority Leader of the Mississippi Senate, being elected in 2017.
Mississippi Highway 161 (MS 161) is a state highway designation for three highways in the U.S. state of Mississippi, consisting of old alignments of U.S. Route 61 (US 61). Totaling at 19.872 miles (31.981 km), the three sections are located in Bolivar, Coahoma, and Desoto counties. The Bolivar County section, designated in 2000, travels from Merigold to Mound Bayou and Shelby. In Coahoma County, MS 161 was designated in 2004 and runs through Clarksdale and Lyon. In Desoto County, MS 161 travels through the town of Walls and was created in 1999.
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