Key Moments In The Story
1875 - The Mississippi Plan and the clinton massacre
Hiram Revels takes office, a visible symbol of Black political power in the South.
1870 - First Black U.S. Senator From Mississippi
White leaders in Jackson develop a plan to regain control through violence and fraud. Armed groups attack Black voters and officials statewide, including the massacre in Clinton and the assassination of Senator Charles Caldwell.
1890 - A constitution built for exclusion
Mississippi adopts a new constitution with poll taxes, literacy tests, and lifetime voting bans that sharply cut Black voter registration and become a model for other states
1968 - 1976 - One black legislator, alone
Robert G. Clark Jr. becomes the first Black Mississippian elected to the state legislature since Reconstruction and serves for years as the only Black member in the body.