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By ANDREW REESE JACKSON, Miss. (UPI)--Black candidates are concentrating, mostly on county-level posts in Tuesday's Democratic primaries but apparently feel their chances are good also of Plucking off a few legislative teats before the 1975 elections are over. State Rep. Robert Clark, a 43-year-old partyment at a junior college in Lexington, lo only Haenoe serving in either legislative Clark, seeking his third straight term, is unopposed for the Democratic nomination this year in his district, which includes Holmes and Humphreys counties. Blacks also have qualified for legislative races in other widely scattered areas--especially in the populous Jackson area where a court-ordered reapportionment plan resulted in establishment of 12 new singlesmember House districts in Hinds County. Legislative candidates previously ran from the county at large in Hinds. Statewide, an unofficial survey indicates that more than 150 blacks will be seeking such county offices as sheriff, supervisor, justice of the peace and constable in the primaries. And many others may qualify later to run as independents in the November general election. Blacks have made significant gains in Mississippi during the past decade, capturing nearly 200 elective offices at the city and county level since passage of the 1965 Voting Fights Act. Black voter registration has jumped from about 30,000 to an estimated 300,000 or more, slightly less than one third of the total registered vote. No blacks have come close, however, to winning any statewide office nor fared much better for the most part in seeking legislative posts. Mayor Charles Evers of Fayette, the state's first serious black gubernatorial challenger, was crushed by Gov. Hill Waller in the 1971 general election. Evers had considered another crack at state office this year--either governor or lieutenant governor--but decided instead to try for a seat in the Mississippi Senate. The veteran civil rights leader said he felt he had at least a 50-50 chance of defeating his Democratic opponent, incumbent Sen. John William Powell of Liberty, in Tuesday's balloting. Powell, a 47-year-old cattleman and farmer, has served in the Senate since 1960 and is chairman of the Committee on County Affairs. ‘Its going to be close,’ Evers predicted. “Any incumbent is hard to beat.” But he said many whites as well as blacks had indicated they would vote for him and “I hope I can win. [£ 1 do rm going to be a good senator, represent all the people in the district... The district in which Evers is running consists of five counties -Adams, Amite, Franklin, Jefferson and Wilkinson -with whites holding a slight edge of about 51.9 per cent in voting age population. The winner of the Democratic nomination faces a white Republican, George Strahan of Natchez, in November. Two blacks are expected to seek state offices this fall as independents. Henry J. Kirksey of Jackson has announced for governor and C. J. Duckworth, executive secretary of the Mississippi Teachers Association, has indicated he will run again for state superintendent of education. Duckworth was an unsuccessful candidate for superintendent in 1971. In Hinds County, the recent court decision has prompted more than a dozen blacks to qualify for House posts in the Democratic primaries while a number of other blacks are running as Republicans for legislative seats. Fred Barks, a local attorney and president of the Jackson NAACP chapter, said to believes at least three black legislators will be chosen from Hinds County. Under the single member district plan, he said, three of the districts in the Jackson area have a solid black majority. * Banks is among five candidates for the Democratic nomination in one of these districts, along with longtime black civil rights lawyer R. Jess Brown. Among the candidates in another predominantly black district in the capital city is James H. Meredith, we gained national attention in 1962 as the first black student at the University of Mississippi. Meredith has been unsuccessful in previous bids for a variety of public offices. Meredith led a field of five candidates in a Democratic primary contest for Congress last year but was asian Independent of the Some Mi as an in 4 of November. He was ruled Pratgitte as an indecent, however, because of his role in the party primary. Rep. Robert Clark Charles Evers
Newspaper Details
Delta Democrat Times
Greenville, Mississippi, US
Sun, Aug 03, 1975
Page 38
Full Page
Clipped by
Derrick R.
USA 30 May 2026
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