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Mississippi Women in Politics by Ronni Mott
A
lyce Clarke remembers her first day at the Mississippi Capitol. It was 1985, and Clarke was the first African American woman to serve in the state Legislature. When she asked where the women’s rest room was, she was told the building had only one restroom for her. She and her women colleagues eventually remedied the situation. But even with access to more facilities, in those days, women frequently had to make long treks to other parts of the building. Clarke said one of her collºeagues would use a men’s room if necessary, shouting “woman in the hall!” as she entered. This year is Clarke’s 27th year serving the people of Jackson in the House of Representatives. She declined to give her age, but her iron-gray and silver hair gives a hint. She walks slowly with a cane, but age isn’t the problem: Clarke has been living with multiple sclerosis longer as she’s been in office, about 30 years. She prefers to define the MS acronym as “magnificent spirit,” and she believes her work keeps the worst of the debilitating disease at bay. “That might just be one of the things that keep you alive,” her doctor said when Clarke told him she was running for office. For Clarke, her years in office are on a continuum of caring for people. She’s the daughter of a teacher and a handyman who stressed the need for education in a world that was—and continues to be—harsh for
women and people of color. Instead of allowing their daughter to run off to Chicago after high school, Clarke’s parents insisted she go to college. She graduated from Alcorn State University in 1961, and went on to Tuskegee University for her master’s degree. Her degrees, in home economics and nutrition, might seem anachronistic, but for Clarke, they provided a laser-like focus into the issues women face: reproductive health, poverty, domestic violence, access to education and jobs, all complicated by race. The political landscape might have shifted in Mississippi, but in 2012, women are still struggling with the same issues. She Doesn’t Run Clarke believes that many of the problems women continue to face could be resolved if more women held elected positions, which stands at about 17 percent nationwide. Of 174 seats in the Mississippi Legislature, women hold 29—16.7 percent. “If we had more women, I think our state and our nation would be a much better place,” she said. “We take our time and really think about what it is that we’re doing.” Some of her female colleagues in the Mississippi Legislature may not agree. Sen. Deborah Jeanne Dawkins said she frequently shoots from the hip. “When I get pissed off, I tend to do something about it,” Dawkins said. Being “pissed off” is what got her into politics in the first place with her only previous position was president of her local Parent Teacher As-
Among the women in Mississippi politics are (above, left to right): state Rep. Adrienne Wooten, activist Atlee Breland, Rep. Alyce Clark, activist Cristen Hemmins, former Greenville Mayor Heather McTeer and state Treasurer Lynn Fitch.
sociation. She never believed she would win. “I thought to myself, ‘I’ll just go on and qualify, and then somebody else will jump in, and then I can help them,’” she said. “But once I was in there, I was in it.” It was a different kind of pissed off that got Flonzie Brown-Wright into politics. In 1963, she was in Biloxi, when she heard the news of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers’ assassination in Jackson. “At this point, I knew I had to learn more about what was going on,” she said. Brown-Wright, now 70, began to attend civil-rights related events. Shortly after moving to Canton in 1964, Wright befriended civil-rights activist Annie Devine, who encouraged her new friend’s interest. In 1967, Devine convinced BrownWright to run for public office. The following year, she ran for and won the race for election commissioner in Madison County, becoming the first black woman in Mississippi to hold elected office. Dawkins entered the Mississippi Senate in 2000. She bemoaned the fact that those in power, especially in Mississippi, don’t even consider women for political office. “[M]ost first-time candidates are groomed and encouraged,” she said. “… In most instances, it’s a bunch of rich old white guys deciding … who will be their boy.” Men aren’t always the reason for low
numbers of women in politics. “Men Rule: The Continued Under-Representation of Women in U.S. Politics,” a study released in January by the Women & Politics Institute at American University’s School of Public Affairs, identified seven reasons that women don’t run for office: 1. Women perceive the electoral environment as highly competitive and biased against female candidates. 2. Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin’s candidacies aggravated women’s perceptions of gender bias in the electoral arena. 3. Women are less likely than men to think they are qualified to run for office. 4. Female potential candidates are less competitive, less confident and more risk averse than their male counterparts. 5. Women react more negatively than men to many aspects of modern campaigns. 6. Women are less likely to receive suggestions to run for office—from anyone. 7. Women are still responsible for the majority of childcare and household tasks. The women who spoke to the Jackson Free Press confirmed the study’s premises. But not one of them believed they were reason enough not to get politically active.
Women, see page 18
jacksonfreepress.com
COURTESY ADRIENNE WOOTEN; COURTESY ATLEE BREELAND; TRIP BURNS; COURTESY CRISTEN HEMMINS; XXXXX; COURTESY LYNN FITCH
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