LEXINGTON, Miss. (AP) — Robert G. Clark, who was elected in 1967 as Mississippi’s first Black lawmaker of the 20th century and rose to the second-highest leadership role in the state House of Representatives, died Tuesday at age 96, his son said.
When Robert Clark first won office, he was the first Black lawmaker elected in Mississippi since 1894. After Reconstruction, white supremacists passed laws to destroy Black political power gained after the Civil War.
Rep. Bryant Clark, who succeeded Robert Clark, said his father died of natural causes at home in Holmes County, north of Jackson.
A teacher and descendant of slaves, Clark was ostracized during his first years at the state Capitol, relegated to sitting solo at a two-person desk in the House chamber and ignored by white colleagues at social events.
@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 99px;}}@media ( min-width: 320px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 99px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}
By the time he left office 36 years later, he had served as chairman of both the House Ethics Committee and the powerful Education Committee. In a state where nearly 40% of residents are Black, he saw more Black candidates win seats as voting rights were enforced and more majority-Black districts were drawn, sometimes under court order.
Clark also won the respect and support of colleagues, Black and white, who elected him in January 1992 to House speaker pro tempore, a position he retained until he retired in 2004.
Clark was among five activists and elected officials honored in February 2018 during a black-tie-optional gala at the newly opened Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
The glitzy event was a lifetime away from Clark’s hardscrabble early days, when most of his relatives worked in cotton fields on family land in Holmes County. As a small child, he would sit by the side of the field with his elderly grandfather, William Clark, who was born a slave and shared vivid memories of deprivation.
“He had never owned a pair of pants or shoes until after slavery,” Robert Clark told The Associated Press in a 2018 interview. “Their feed was poured over to