Born in 1928 in Holmes County, Robert G. Clark Jr. was the first African American elected to the Mississippi Legislature in the 20th century. Elected in 1967, Clark became chair of the House Education Committee in 1977 and played a key role in the passage of the Education Reform Act of 1982. He was elected Speaker Pro Tempore in 1992. After he retired from public life in 2003, a government building in Jackson was renamed the Robert G. Clark Jr. State Office Building, a first for an African American in the state.