How do we honor a man who broke down the barriers to Black representation and then draw lines that risk building those barriers again?
That question sits at the center of Mississippi’s redistricting debate.
When I addressed the hearing committee in Jackson, I wore the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus lapel pin bearing the image of our emeritus leader, former Mississippi House of Representatives Speaker Pro Tempore Robert G. Clark Jr. His image represents perseverance through exclusion and a responsibility that every generation of lawmakers inherits.
We cannot honor Mr. Clark on our lapels while allowing the progress he helped secure to be unraveled in our laws.
Representing the people of House District 41 and serving as chairman of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus are among the greatest honors of my life. Our caucus consists of 58 Black men and women. We are the unapologetic voice of 1.2 million Black Mississippians at the State Capitol. That responsibility requires us to confront threats to meaningful representation with clarity and resolve.
As a student of history, I hear troubling echoes between 1876, 1877 and 2026.
The disputed presidential election of 1876 and the retreat from Reconstruction in 1877 helped abandon Black Americans to governments determined to dismantle their political power. I regard that abandonment as a great betrayal: the nation retreated from its promise of protection while those who had only recently emerged from slavery faced renewed exclusion and oppression.
Mississippi had already demonstrated what Black political leadership could accomplish. Alexander K. Davis served as lieutenant governor. James Hill served as secretary of state. Thomas W. Cardozo served as superintendent of education. John R. Lynch served as Mississippi’s first Black speaker of the House and later represented the state in Congress. Their service is a reminder that Black leadership was part of Mississippi’s government long before the civil rights victories of the twentieth century.
Then came the backlash.
Black legislative representation declined. The Mississippi Constitution of 1890 imposed poll taxes and discriminatory literacy tests, reinforced by intimidation and violence. State historical accounts report that Black voter registration fell from at least 142,000 before that constitution’s adoption to just 8,615 by 1892.
Political exclusion on that scale was engineered. Its consequences endured for generations.
After the last Black legislators of that era completed their service in 1894, no Black Mississippian won election to the Legislature until Mr. Clark in 1967, seventy-three years later.
Consider what those years meant. Black families worked, paid taxes, raised children and sustained communities while having no Black representation in the Legislature to help shape the decisions governing their lives.
Clark’s election broke that silence. But his arrival did not end the hostility.
Before he was sworn in in January 1968, his right to take office had been challenged. Inside the House chamber, where other lawmakers shared desks, he sat alone. He entered as a caucus of one. They sawed his desk in half and isolated his seat. They could not extinguish his purpose.
Today, that caucus has become one of the largest bodies of Black legislators in the country. This progress should remind us how much was required to restore representation and how seriously we must scrutinize decisions that could weaken it.
Black Mississippians constitute well over one-third of our state’s population, approaching four in ten. Their opportunity to elect representatives of their choosing deserves protection and serious consideration of expansion, including examination of a second congressional district where Black voters could exercise that opportunity. Population figures alone do not settle how districts should be drawn, but they underscore the importance of a thorough, transparent discussion.
Calling this unnecessary mid-decade redistricting effort “partisan” does not answer concerns about its consequences for Black communities. Lawmakers must explain what their proposals would actually do, which communities would be divided, which voters would see their electoral opportunity weakened, and what evidence supports the proposed changes.
The authority to conduct reapportionment does not relieve lawmakers of their obligation to comply with constitutional protections or justify their decisions to the public.
Scripture speaks directly to this responsibility. Isaiah 10:1 declares: “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed.”
For those of us entrusted with public office, that is a warning about the consequences of using governmental power. The laws we write carry moral weight. So do the lines we draw.
I call on the committee to preserve communities, publish the evidence supporting its proposals and reject maps that weaken Black electoral opportunity. Mississippi’s history demands scrutiny, honesty and accountability.
Robert Clark’s legacy deserves more than ceremonial recognition. It deserves protection through the decisions made in the building where he once sat alone. Mississippi’s history of silencing Black voices must remain a warning, but never become a blueprint.
This MFP Voices opinion essay reflects the personal opinion of its author(s). The column does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Free Press, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to voices@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints.
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