Robert Clark, the first black legislator of the Mississippi after the era of civil rights, died at 96

By Emily Wagster Pettus

Lexington, Miss. (AP) – Robert G. Clark, who was elected in 1967 as the first black legislator of the 20th century Mississippi and reached the second largest role of leadership in the House of State Representatives, died on Tuesday at 96, said his son.

Representative Bryant Clark, who succeeded Robert Clark, said that his father died of natural causes at the house in the county of Holmes, north of Jackson.

A teacher and descendant of slaves, Clark was ostracized during his first years at the State Capitol, relegated solo solo in a office of two people in the house of the house and ignored by white colleagues during social events.

As he left his duties 36 years later, he had been chairman of the Chamber’s Ethics Committee and the Powerful Education Committee. In a state where almost 40% of residents are black, he saw more black candidates win seats while voting rights were applied and most black districts were drawn, sometimes under the order of the court.

Clark also won the respect and support of colleagues, Black and White, who elected him in January 1992 to the speaker of President Pro Tempore, a position he kept until his retirement in 2004.

Clark was one of the five militants and elected officials honored in February 2018 during an optional gala of the black tie at the newly open Mississippi Civil Museum.

The sumptuous event was a life far from the first days of Clark in Hardscrabble, when most of his relatives worked in cotton fields on family land in the county of Holmes. As a small child, he sat next to the field with his elderly grandfather, William Clark, who was born a slave and shared lively memories of deprivation.

“He had never owned a pants or shoes before slavery,” Robert Clark told the Associated Press in a 2018 interview. “Their diet was paid to them in a hollow just as we feed the pigs, and they had to descend and eat in the best possible way.”

The wisdom of this grandfather, he said, helped him the feeling of becoming a leader.

“I would throw a corn hand and the chickens ate. I would throw another hand of corn there, and the chickens left this hand of corn and run in another hand, “said Clark. “And I asked him:” grandfather, why these old crazy chickens had corn and run to the other corn? ” He said, “Young man, they just follow the crowd”. And he said, “It’s something I never want you to do.”

“And by feeding the chickens, it has become a part of me – not only by following the group.”

Clark went to Michigan to obtain a master’s degree in education, then held a promise he had made to older parents by returning to the family land of Mississippi. As a teacher and coach, he often entered the houses of his athletes.

“I realized that many parents could not help their children to have lessons,” said Clark. “And I went to see the education superintendent to ask him if he would implement an adult education program. And he said to me: “No, I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the county to do it.” “”

After the fully white local school board rejected Clark’s request to start the program that would mainly help black adults, he announced his candidacy for this council. Maneuvering to keep a black man outside the council, the representative of the local state has obtained a change in state law so that this school board is appointed rather than elected. Rather than accepting defeat, Clark ran against this representative and has marked history by winning.

Because blacks were generally not accepted in the Democratic Party which controlled the Mississippi, Clark’s family had belonged to what they called the “black and tanned” segment of the Republican Party when he was a child. With allegiances that returned in the late 1960s, he organized his first legislative race as an independent. It was not until later that he would run and win as a democrat.

On the day of the inauguration of January 1968, Clark did not know if he would be allowed to take the oath. The white candidate whom he defeated had filed a complaint claiming that he did not live in the county of Holmes, where his family had lived for generations.

Clark arrived at the Capitol with his lawyer, Marian Wright, who then founded the Children’s Defense Fund, a national defense group for defenders of the poor. They stood near a statue of the late Theodore Bilbo, an arc segregationist who had been governor of Mississippi and American senator, when they were told about 10 minutes before the ceremony in which Clark would serve.

The room of housed house, with marble walls and stained glass, was filled with oak offices to two people where siege comrades exchanged gossip and have often become rapid friends. In January 1968, in the Mississippi deeply separated, the main member of the local legislative delegation of Clark decreed that Clark would have seated alone.

Isolation extended to group dinners for legislators: “No one was sitting with me,” said Clark.

Sitting alone at the tables for six or eight has created a dilemma, he remembers: “I’m very next at 240 pounds. I did not intend to gain weight. I was just not going to leave all this food on the table.

Clark and his first wife, Essie, had two sons – Robert G. Clark III and Wandrick Bryant Clark. She died of cancer in 1977, and he raised their sons as a widower, the homeshooling at home and took them to the State Capitol while the Legislative Assembly was in session.

About 19 years after his death, Clark married Jo Ann Ross. In 2003, he chose not to request his re -election, and the seat was won by his second son. Bryant Clark also continued to practice law. Robert G. Clark III, meanwhile, was a judge of the Chancellery in four counties.

The writer Associated Press, Jeff Amy, contributed to Atlanta.

Originally published: March 4, 2025 at 1:19 p.m. PST