JACKSON, Miss.
Henry J. Kirksey, an outspoken civil rights activist and one of the first Blacks elected to the Mississippi Senate after Reconstruction, has died at age 90.
Family members said Kirksey died of pneumonia at St. Dominic/Jackson Memorial Hospital last week.
Kirksey’s daughter, Karin Kirksey Zander of Raleigh, N.C., credited her father with making “such a big impact” on Mississippi and its people.
“I just always had this immense respect for what he committed himself to do,” Zander said. “He gave 150 percent, and I just always viewed him as a heroic figure.”
Kirksey’s family has said the election of 600 Blacks to public office in the state can be credited in large part to Kirksey’s service as a plaintiff, expert witness and community organizer.
To bring about change, the Tupelo native filed several lawsuits against the city of Jackson and the state. In 1965, Kirksey, a planning consultant, challenged the countywide election of state legislators. His lawsuit lead to the adoption of single-member legislative districts in 1979.
