Uncharted Political Waters

Miss. Lt. Gov. Hopeful Seeks To Be First Black Statewide Office Holder

(AP)  Barbara Blackmon is campaigning for a prize no black person has attained in a state still wrestling with the ghosts of its segregationist past — election to statewide office in Mississippi.

Blackmon, a candidate for lieutenant governor, is a wealthy, dynamic lawyer with a dozen years in the state Senate.

To succeed, the Democrat will have to energize black voters — blacks make up 37 of Mississippi's population — and win substantial white support Nov. 4, when she faces Republican Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck.

"As a product of integration, from ninth grade on, there are pockets of individuals, black and white, who know me as a person and not as a political figure," the 47-year-old Blackmon said. "I think Mississippi has made tremendous strides in looking at a person as an individual and what their capabilities are."

In recent years, Mississippi has tried to atone for some of the wrongs committed during the bloody struggle for civil rights. Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of murder in 1994, three decades after he gunned down NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers. In 1998, a former Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard was convicted of ordering a 1966 firebombing that killed a black storeowner. And earlier this year, a white man was found guilty in the 1966 shooting death of a black man — a slaying prosecutors said was aimed at luring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Mississippi to be assassinated.

Is Mississippi ready to elect a black lieutenant governor?

"I am certainly open to the notion that Mississippi is no more prejudiced in its total makeup than other places," said Joseph Parker, a political science professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. "There is a lot to indicate that Mississippi is moving strongly in the direction of judging people by their character rather than the color of their skin."

Blackmon won the nomination with 54 percent of the vote Aug. 5, defeating two men — a white former state Supreme Court justice and a black landscaping-business owner — and carrying several predominantly white counties.

She will be on the ballot in November with Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, who is saddled with a weak state economy and is trying to fend off a challenge from Haley Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman.

Parker said Blackmon's presence on the ballot could boost black turnout, thereby helping Musgrove.

But race could figure in the contest in another way, too: Parker suggested Barbour is making a veiled appeal to white voters by lumping Musgrove together with his black ticket mate as liberals and by using "liberal" as code for black.

"The connecting of liberal and black in the minds of white voters would seem to be the strategy now," Parker said.

Barbour countered: "For me, this campaign is not going to be, never should be and won't be about race. What this campaign is about is issues, it's about conservative Republicans versus liberal Democrats."

Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute for Government at Mississippi State University, said some people who voted for Blackmon in the primary may not stick with her in November. The primary was open to all voters, regardless of their party affiliation.

"How many Republicans came over to vote for sheriff, supervisor, tax collector and all that and said, `Hmm, let me vote for the opponent I want my candidate to have'?" Wiseman said.

Blackmon touts herself as a candidate for all Mississippians. In her stump speeches, she promises to help the underprivileged, proposes reduced medication costs for the elderly and calls for tax breaks and other incentives for small businesses.

"I know that the little man is the backbone of this state and we have to always be mindful of how to assist in giving a hand up," she said.

"Barbara brings just a common-sense approach to the situation. She's not making promises just to hype people or to excite them. She's making promises she knows that she's going to be able to accomplish," said the Rev. Hosea Hines of College Hill Baptist Church in Jackson.

Born one of nine children in a working-class family, Blackmon grew up working on her grandparents' farm. She says she earned her high school diploma at 16, her bachelor's at 19 and her master's at 20. By her mid-20s, she had a law degree with expertise in tax law.

She and her husband, state Rep. Ed Blackmon, run a law firm in Canton and count among their clients Microsoft, R.J. Reynolds and Illinois Central Railroad.

Blackmon said she feels obligated to give back. She and her husband donated $1 million to Tougaloo College and $750,000 to Jackson State University. She once left a $2,000 tip for a waiter and left him a note advising him to use the money to complete his education.

Barbour says he and Tuck want to change Mississippi laws to curb what some see as excessive jury awards. Blackmon has opposed tort reform legislation.

Blackmon is not the only black candidate for a statewide office this year. Gary Anderson won the Democratic nomination for treasurer in a runoff on Tuesday.