MSU Collins Speaker Series to welcome history-making legislator

Contact: Sammy McDavid

The speaker pro tempore of the Mississippi House of Representatives who was the first African American elected to the Legislature since Reconstruction is next week's guest for the new public affairs lecture program at Mississippi State.

Rep. Robert G. Clark of Lexington will lead the Oct. 26 meeting of the university's Morris Collins Speaker Series. Open to all, the program begins at 3 p.m. in Mitchell Memorial Library's John Grisham Room.

Named for the first executive director of MSU's John C. Stennis Institute of Government, the Collins Speaker Series was created earlier this year to expand discussion of major issues. Joining the Stennis Institute as sponsors are the library's Congressional and Political Research Center and the student John C. Stennis-G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Association.

Collins, who was living in retirement in Athens, Ga., died earlier this week following a lengthy illness.

Clark was elected to the Legislature from District 47 in 1967 and is the longest continuously serving member in the House of Representatives. The district includes parts of his native Holmes County and Attala and Yazoo counties.

He was first elected speaker pro tempore, the body's second highest post, in 1992.

Clark is a businessman, rancher and Baptist minister. Formerly a classroom teacher, coach and principal, he holds a bachelor's degree from Jackson State University and a master's from Michigan State. In 1979, he served as a teaching fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

For additional information, telephone the Stennis Institute at (662) 325-3328 or Mitchell Memorial Library at 325-0812.