Lauderdale County unveils marker honoring first Black legislators

Lauderdale County is highlighting another chapter in the region’s rich history with a new historical marker outside the former courthouse recognizing some of the first Black legislators to serve in the state.

“After the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment and a new state constitution enabled the people of Mississippi to elect 162 Black men to state or national office over the next twenty years. More than any other state,” the marker reads.

Representing Lauderdale County was James Aaron Moore, a prominent religious leader and entrepreneur, who served in the State Legislature from 1870 to 1871.

Born in Georgia, Moore was enslaved in Lauderdale County prior to emancipation. After the Civil War, he became a Methodist minister and help organize multiple Methodist churches throughout the East and Central Mississippi, as well as holding several public offices.

In addition to the State House of Representatives, Moore served in the constitutional convention of 1868 and as a Meridian City Councilman in 1869.

During a violent three-day period in Meridian in March 1871, Moore was among the Black leaders targeted amid escalating racial and political tensions. He later testified before a legislative investigative committee about the violence and fled Meridian for Jackson. He eventually established a successful blacksmith shop in Jackson and remained there until his death in 1904.

Also on the plaque is Charles P. Clemens, who represented Clarke County in the State House of Representatives from 1874 to 1875. A freeman from Ohio, Clemens served in the Union Army during the Civil War and later relocated to Mississippi. While in the Legislature, he served on the Public Education, Public Works, Railroads and Federal Relations committees in the House.