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Robert G. Clark Jr. | |
---|---|
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from the 47th district | |
In office 1968–2003 | |
Succeeded by | Bryant Clark |
Personal details | |
Born | Robert G. Clark Jr. October 3,1928 Ebenezer,Mississippi,United States |
Children | Bryant Clark |
Alma mater | Jackson State University Michigan State University |
Occupation | Politician,teacher,coach |
Robert G. Clark Jr. (born October 3,1928) is an American politician who served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1968 to 2004,representing the 47th district. He was the first African-American member of the Mississippi Legislature since 1894.
Robert G. Clark was born to a landowning family in Ebenezer,Holmes County,Mississippi;his great-grandfather had first bought land after the American Civil War and his father Robert continued to farm it. [1]
Clark received his undergraduate degree from Jackson State University and a Master's Degree in Administration and Educational Services from Michigan State University,nearly completing his PhD before entering politics. [1] In 1960,some 800 independent black landowners held nearly half the land area of Holmes County,an unusual situation in the state,which along with most of the American South had sharecropping as the predominant agricultural system.
While working as a teacher in Holmes County,Mississippi,Clark became involved in the civil rights movement,which had been working to register and educate voters since 1963. After the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,he agreed to be a candidate in 1967 of the Freedom Democratic Party (FDP),though he was not a member. [1] Since the assignment of a federal registrar in the county in November 1965,the FDP registered thousands of black voters for the first time since the disfranchisement of their ancestors in 1890.
Clark was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1967 by the black majority of the county,taking his seat on January 2,1968. He was the first African American elected to the Mississippi State Legislature since the Reconstruction era. [2] Until 1976 he was the only African-American representative in the state house. He repeatedly won re-election and served until 2003. [1]
In 1977,Clark became the first black committee chairman in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He was named to head the "Education Committee,a position he held for ten pivotal years of change and reform in Mississippi's educational system. He was at the helm of the Education Committee when the House passed the highly acclaimed 1982 Education Reform Act,as well as the 1984 Vocational Education Reform Act.
In 1982,he ran for congress and won the Democratic nomination,but did not receive party support and lost the general election. [1]
In January 1992,he was elected as Speaker Pro Tempore. [1] He was re-elected to that position at the start of the 1996 session and again re-elected at the start of the 2000 session. When he retired from the Mississippi House of Representatives in December 2003,he was the longest-serving member in continuous House service. He was succeeded in office by his son,Bryant Clark. [1]
In 2004,Clark became the first African American to have a Mississippi state building named after him. As a legislator Clark was known as a statesman,able to work with all colleagues. [1]
James Howard Meredith is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and United States Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi after the intervention of the federal government. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans. The admission of Meredith ignited the Ole Miss riot of 1962 where Meredith's life was threatened and 31,000 American servicemen were required to quell the violence – the largest ever invocation of the Insurrection Act of 1807.
Holmes County is a county in the U.S. state of Mississippi; its western border is formed by the Yazoo River and the eastern border by the Big Black River. The western part of the county is within the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,000. Its county seat is Lexington. The county is named in honor of David Holmes, territorial governor and the first governor of the state of Mississippi and later United States Senator for Mississippi. Holmes County native, Edmond Favor Noel, was an attorney and state politician, elected as governor of Mississippi, serving from 1908 to 1912.
Lexington is a city in and the county seat of Holmes County, Mississippi, United States. The county was organized in 1833 and the city in 1836. The population was 1,731 at the 2010 census, down from 2,025 at the 2000 census. The estimated population in 2018 was 1,496. It has declined from its high of 3,198 in 1950 due to the expansion of industrial-scale agriculture.
John Bell Williams was an American Democratic politician who represented Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1968 and served as the 55th governor of Mississippi from 1968 to 1972.
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), also referred to simply as the Freedom Democratic Party, was an American political party that existed in the state of Mississippi from 1964 to 1968 during the Civil Rights Movement. Created as the partisan political branch of the Freedom Democratic organization, the party was organized by African Americans and White Americans from Mississippi who were sympathetic to the Civil Rights Movement. The organization aimed to challenge the established power of the state Mississippi Democratic Party, which then opposed the Civil Rights Movement and only allowed participation by White Americans.
Edmund Favor Noel was an American attorney and politician who served as governor of Mississippi from 1908 to 1912. The son of an early planter family in Mississippi, he became a member of the Democratic Party.
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.
The Mississippi Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Mississippi. The party headquarters is located in Jackson, Mississippi.
In the United States, black conservatism is a political and social movement rooted in African-American communities that aligns largely with the American conservative movement, including the Christian right. Black conservatism emphasizes social conservatism, traditionalism, patriotism, capitalism and free markets. What characterizes a 'black conservative' has changed over time, and proponents do not necessarily share the same political philosophy.
The Government of Mississippi is the government of the U.S. state of Mississippi. Power in Mississippi's government is distributed by the state's Constitution between the executive and legislative branches. The state's current governor is Tate Reeves. The Mississippi Legislature consists of the House of Representatives and Senate. Mississippi is one of only five states that elects its state officials in odd numbered years. Mississippi holds elections for these offices every four years in the years preceding Presidential election years.
Ebenezer is an unincorporated community located in Holmes County, Mississippi, United States. Ebenezer is located at the western end of the eastern segment of Mississippi Highway 14, approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of the county seat of Lexington and 4 miles (6.4 km) approximately west of Goodman.
Eureka Masonic College, also known as The Little Red Schoolhouse in Richland, Holmes County, Mississippi, is widely known as the birthplace of the Order of the Eastern Star, created by Robert Morris.
Mississippi Industrial College was a historically black college in Holly Springs, Mississippi. It was founded in 1905 by the Mississippi Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. After desegregation of community colleges in the mid-20th century, it had trouble competing and eventually closed in 1982. The campus was listed as a historic site on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and was acquired by Rust College in 2008.
Bryant W. Clark is an American politician from Mississippi. A member of the Democratic Party, Clark is a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, and represents the 47th district. He has served in the Mississippi House since 2004. He succeeded his father, Robert G. Clark Jr.
Fred Lee Banks Jr. is an American lawyer, civil rights activist, politician, and former Presiding Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi. He served on the court from 1991 to 2001. He served as a judge of the state's Seventh Circuit District Court from 1985-1991, and as a member of the state house of representatives from 1976-1985.
Douglas Leavon Anderson was an American educator and politician from Mississippi. Anderson, a Democrat, was first elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1976. He served in that office until 1980, when he won election to the Mississippi State Senate. He served in the State Senate until 1992.
Wilson Floyd Minor was an American journalist and columnist who covered events in Mississippi.
Harrison H. Truhart. was a blacksmith and state legislator in Mississippi serving as a representative from 1872 to 1875. In 1872 he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives to represent Holmes County, Mississippi along with Perry Howard and F. Stewart. In 1874, again with Perry Howard and Tenant Weatherly replacing Stewart, he represented Holmes County in the House.
Linda F. Coleman 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.