Contact: Sammy McDavid
Vicksburg's mayor will be the featured guest Thursday [Feb. 1] for a public program in Mitchell Memorial Library at Mississippi State.
Robert M. Walker, a Warren County native elected the city's mayor three times since 1988, is the first guest of 2001 for the university's Morris W. "Bill" Collins Speaker Series. His presentation begins at 3 p.m. in the library's John Grisham Room.
Walker was a county supervisor prior to his election as top official of the historic Mississippi River municipality. He also had served as Mississippi's assistant secretary of state for elections and field secretary of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
A graduate of Jackson State University and the University of Mississippi, he holds the distinction of being UM's first African-American faculty member.
For his many leadership achievements to that point, he was named in 1993 as state public administrator of the year by Mississippi State's chapter of Pi Alpha Alpha public administration honor society.
Now beginning its first full year, the monthly Collins Speaker Series is co-sponsored by the university's John C. Stennis Institute of Government, the library's Congressional and Political Research Center and the student John C. Stennis-G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Association.
Other speakers scheduled during the spring semester include political consultant and former National Republican Party chair Haley Barbour of Yazoo City, U. S. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Harrison County Judge Robin Metcalf, Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, and Laurel Mayor Susan Vincent.
For more information on the program telephone (662) 325-7661 or 325-3328.