The first Black woman elected to the Mississippi Legislature said Tuesday that she will not seek another term, 38 years after she took office. Democratic Rep. Alyce Clarke of Jackson led a 1990s effort to establish the state's first drug courts.
Clarke said that early in her legislative career, she saw a House staff member slip a key to one of her white female colleagues for a private women’s restroom on the second floor. Clarke had been going all the way down to a public restroom on the first floor.
Clarke said when she arrived at the Capitol the next day, a security officer gave her a key to the private restroom and told her she was being summoned to see then-House Speaker C.B. “Buddie” Newman, a Democrat.Clarke said Newman — who apparently hadn’t read the newspapers — told her that if she promised not to tell the media about the restroom situation, he would get a committee to work on putting a new women’s restroom near the House chamber.
“If you happen to be in the committee, quite often there are things you think of that they don’t think of,” she said. “And it appears that we are really more concerned about educating our children and making sure they don’t end up in prison.”Democratic Rep. Ed Blackmon — who for many years shared a two-person desk with Clarke in the House chamber — said Tuesday that Clarke accomplished goals by being persistent.
Clarke pushed early in her legislative career to establish Born Free, a drug and alcohol treatment center for pregnant women. She said she had seen a need for the program while working in a nutrition program at a public health center.
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