Editor’s note: Historian Derrion Arrington reflects on early positions taken by Robert Clark, who in 1967 became the first Black Mississippian elected to the state Legislature in the 20th century, and how those issues championed by Clark are being addressed today.

Before Robert Clark Jr. broke barriers as Mississippi’s first Black legislator since Reconstruction in 1968, he spent two decades in classrooms.

From 1953 to 1973 he taught in secondary and postsecondary schools across the state, cultivating a reputation as a principled educator before turning full-time to politics.

Clark often spoke of his ambition to lead the House Education Committee – a goal realized in 1977 when House Speaker C.B. “Buddie’ Newman appointed him after George Rogers left to join President Jimmy Carter’s administration.

But Clark’s early years in the Mississippi Legislature were marked not by influence, but by isolation.

He frequently stood as the lone dissenting vote on major legislation, a solitary figure challenging the prevailing political order. That isolation reached a defining moment in January 1970 as Mississippi braced for federally mandated school desegregation.

In his statewide address that month, Gov. John Bell Williams acknowledged the end of the segregated system but urged parents to embrace “freedom of choice” between public and private schools. His somber words reflected a region still resisting change.

The governor framed the proposal as empowering parents, but critics warned it masked efforts to preserve segregation through state-supported private academies.

Clark was blunt in his rebuttal. Williams’ plan, he argued, would “only weaken the already poor educational system we have in Mississippi” by funneling public dollars into private institutions.

On March 20, when the House overwhelmingly endorsed the governor’s proposal for freedom of choice, Clark cast the lone vote against it. “How

long are we in Mississippi going to keep on ignoring the mandates of the Constitution?” he asked, warning that the bill would only deepen public unrest.

His solitary stand highlighted the fault lines of an education system caught between progress and preservation.

In the early months of 1970, Clark was vocal in his criticism of both local and national leadership.

That January, President Richard Nixon’s domestic advisers floated the idea of forming a “blue ribbon Southern group” to address school desegregation.

Although Nixon publicly supported the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision to desegregate the public schools, calling it both constitutionally and morally correct, he remained careful not to interfere with ongoing court cases. His administration drew a strategic line: address only de jure segregation, dismiss de facto concerns.

“Call it de facto and drop it,” Nixon instructed his officials, aiming to avoid broader federal enforcement of integration policies.

While Nixon’s statements gave some Black leaders reason for cautious optimism, they did little to sway Clark. He continued to push for grassroots solutions to empower the Black community.

On Jan. 11, 1970,  Clark convened a coalition of civil rights and education leaders at the Mississippi Teachers Association office in Jackson. Representing organizations like the NAACP, the National Education Association and the Freedom Democratic Party, the group laid the groundwork for the Educational Resources Center (ERC). The initiative aimed to ensure Black Mississippians could engage in a unitary school system with “dignity and integrity,” contributing meaningfully to community education.

Still, legislative battles raged on. In early February, two measures aimed at bolstering private schools passed through the Mississippi House. One reduced licensing costs for private school buses. The other bill allowed individuals aged 16 and above to take out loans for private education. Clark condemned the bills as unconstitutional, calling them indirect tax subsidies that favored segregationist academies. He predicted they would not survive judicial scrutiny.

The tension escalated further when Williams vetoed $5 million in funding for four Head Start programs, affecting roughly 4,000 children.

Clark wrote directly to President Nixon, denouncing the move as racially charged and harmful to efforts at voluntary school integration. The veto, he argued, deepened distrust and discouraged white participation in the programs.

In a rare federal intervention, the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare responded to Clark’s appeal. On March 21, Secretary Robert Finch overrode the governor’s decision, approving over $2 million in grants to sustain the Head Start programs. The move highlighted the federal government’s growing role in supporting early childhood education in underserved communities.

As court-ordered integration took effect across the South, Mississippi saw a sharp rise in the establishment of private “segregation academies.” Many white families fled public schools, seeking what they framed as “quality” education. Clark remained a fierce critic of this exodus and the state’s continued financial support for private institutions, calling instead for full investment in public education.

A quarter-century later, the issue of school choice has returned to the forefront.

President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called school choice “the civil rights issue of our time,” secured a provision in his signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act creating the nation’s first federal school choice program.

The program, built on tax credit scholarships, allows taxpayers to donate up to $1,700 annually to nonprofits supporting private education, receiving a dollar-for-dollar credit in return. Unlike traditional deductions, which reduce taxable income, the program provides a full match – an unprecedented shift in education funding. In August 2025, Mississippi’s House Select Committee on Education Freedom heard testimony from two Trump administration officials, who argued the program could transform educational opportunities in the state.

Still, echoes of 1970 remain. Some lawmakers questioned whether school choice could erode public education or clash with constitutional provisions, just as Clark once argued decades earlier. Lindsey Burke, the Trump administration’s deputy chief of staff fo policy and programs, insisted the plan does not violate the Mississippi Constitution.

“The funds are not directly funding a school,” she said. “They are funding the family who then chooses a school.”

Mississippi once again finds itself at the center of debates over educational freedom.

The state has embraced modern versions of school choice—charter schools, vouchers, education savings accounts and open enrollment.

Supporters argue these programs empower parents and give children trapped in failing schools a way out. Critics warn they echo the old “freedom-of-choice” system, draining money from public schools and worsening racial and economic divides.

Legally, these programs are constitutional—for now. Courts have generally upheld vouchers and charters, even when public money flows to religious schools, as in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Carson v. Makin.

But Mississippi’s Constitution also requires lawmakers to maintain a system of free public schools. If funding shifts too heavily toward private or religious institutions, the state could face lawsuits challenging whether it is meeting that obligation.

The real test may not be in the courtroom, but in classrooms across Mississippi. If “choice” results in further segregation or starves public schools of resources, it risks repeating history – reviving the very inequalities the courts once declared unconstitutional.

In a press release regarding the establishment of a select committee, Mississippi House Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, emphasized that “education freedom” will be the foremost priority as lawmakers prepare for the upcoming legislative session.

The committee met several more times in the following months to gather testimony from both supporters and critics. Lawmakers will use these findings to draft legislation for the 2026 session, ensuring the debate over who controls Mississipp’s classrooms—and how they receive funding—will continue to be unresolved.

Bio: Derrion Arrington is an award-winning historian from Laurel and a graduate of Tougaloo College. He currently works for the ACLU of Mississippi. Arrington is also the author of two books: “Standing Firm in the Dixie: The Freedom Struggle in Laurel, Mississippi” and the forthcoming work, “Robert Clark: The Rise of Black Politics in Mississippi.”