The First Black Legislators in Mississippi

In 2022, more than fifty African Americans were serving in the Mississippi State Legislature, carrying on the legacy of the first Black men who served there in 1870. Mississippi’s first Black legislators were farmers and lawyers, barbers and blacksmiths, teachers and ministers. Some had always known freedom, while others were born into slavery. Some were highly educated elsewhere, and others had never been taught to read because the law in Mississippi forbade it. Many came to Mississippi to help build a more just government, and many were driven out by violence only a few years later.

The Role of Lawyers in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi

In the early twentieth century, Black people in Mississippi who aimed to exercise their rights as citizens of the United States had few allies. State and local government officials, acting under the authority of the 1890 state constitution, blocked efforts by black citizens to vote and operated separate schools for White and Black children.

Census and Redistricting: Just the facts, Ma’am.

Every ten years, the population of the United States is counted by the U.S. Census Bureau, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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Mississippi History Now

Mississippi History Now brings engaging online essays and lesson plans about Mississippi history to students, teachers, and the general reader. Search our online essays and paired lesson plans about Mississippi history by keyword, theme, or time period.

Other Featured Articles

The closing dinner marking the retirement of Mary McLeod Bethune in November 1949.

Building the Collective “voice of Negro women in Mississippi”: The National Council of Negro Women in Mississippi in the 1960s and 1970s

In November 1966, Noel Henry, wife of prominent Clarksdale NAACP leader Aaron Henry, sent her regrets to Dorothy Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Height was organizing a workshop to draw Black women leaders of all socioeconomic levels from around the state to Jackson to discuss how the NCNW could be most helpful to them.
In November 1966, Noel Henry, wife of prominent Clarksdale NAACP leader Aaron Henry, sent her regrets to Dorothy Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Height was organizing a workshop to draw Black women leaders of all socioeconomic levels from around the state to Jackson to discuss how the NCNW could be most helpful to them.
Almeda Butler Hart, alias “James Strong,” who served as Brigadier General David Stuart’s mounted courier during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou.

Mississippi's Forgotten Soldiers: Women in the Ranks during the Civil War

Mississippi’s Civil War chronicle includes such notable generals as Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Joseph E. Johnston, and John C. Pemberton, as well as the thousands of common men they commanded.  Surprisingly, an untold number of daring women joined them on battlefields across the state, even though societal standards of the time forbade them to do so.
Mississippi’s Civil War chronicle includes such notable generals as Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Joseph E. Johnston, and John C. Pemberton, as well as the thousands of common men they commanded.  Surprisingly, an untold number of daring women joined them on battlefields across the state, even though societal standards of the time forbade them to do so.

What is Mississippi History Now

The Mississippi Historical Society launched this online publication in 2000 and revised it in 2021 to encourage interest in Mississippi history and provide educators with articles, primary resources, and lesson plans for teaching the state’s rich and complex history. To contact the site, please email info@mdah.ms.gov.