Robert G. Clark's Journey to the House
The story of a Black man’s unprecedented rise to power and political prominence in the formerly segregationist state of Mississippi
Description
This biographical profile written by one of the South's most notable authors traces the life of Robert George Clark Jr. (1928-2025) from his Jim Crow boyhood in Ebenezer, Mississippi, through his notable career as the first Black Mississippian since Reconstruction to be elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives.
In this compelling book Will D. Campbell fuses Clark's family history with his political career and tells of Clark's struggle with segregationists, his powerful influence in the passing of the state's 1982 Education Reform Bill, and the continued influence of his work on Mississippi politics and culture.
Based on interviews, research, and primary sources, Campbell's book is an evocative, fascinating, and elegantly written portrait of a man who shaped the culture of contemporary Mississippi.
In details of Clark's days as a student at Jackson State University, Campbell's narrative depicts Clark both as a strong individual and as a symbol of African American civil rights activism. As he follows Clark's progress as a politician, educator, and civil rights advocate, he showcases a history of race relations and racial politics in Mississippi during the state's most turbulent era. In this steamy cauldron, however, Campbell never loses sight of Clark's singular life and notable accomplishments.
Robert G. Clark's Journey to the House unites one of Mississippi's foremost citizens of the twentieth century and one of the state's most notable literary voices. During the civil rights struggle, the lives of Clark and Campbell were in interplay. This striking book, a valuable addition to the ever-growing documentary literature of the civil rights movement, shows that their lives and philosophies continued to converge.
Reviews
"This is a unique biography in that it is as much about the author as the subject, the two born three years apart, and their common heritage as Mississippians. Campbell views Clark, the first Black person elected to the state legislator since Reconstruction, as a true amalgamation of Mississippi culture. Clark rose from the back farmlands of Mississippi to lead the state legislature as president pro tem near the end of his thirty-year tenure. Campbell recalls Clark’s journey: his mixture of African, American Indian, and white roots; his family’s history as slaves; and his activism in the civil rights era. Clark used his education as a platform to help others and endured personal tragedy, including the premature death of his wife and having to raise two young sons alone. Clark made compromises with segregationists that cost him trust among Black people and white liberals. But those compromises yielded gains for Black people in Mississippi, a state with a woeful racial history. This is a remarkable story about a remarkable time and place in America."
- Vernon Ford, Booklist