<body><div>mississippitoday.org – Vickie King – 2025-03-09 20:22:00<h2>Mississippians honor first Black lawmaker since Reconstruction</h2>by Vickie King, Mississippi Today March 9, 2025<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3316DQ_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3316DQ_0zYuRh6y00" width="2000" height="1348" ><figcaption>Former State Representative and House Speaker Pro Tem Robert Clark, Jr., lies in state at the State Capitol rotunda, Sunday, March 9, 2025 in Jackson. Clark was also the first Black legislator in the state since Reconstruction.</figcaption></figure>Former Mississippi Rep. Robert Clark Jr. lay in state Sunday in the Capitol Rotunda as family, friends, officials and fellow citizens paid respect to the first Black legislator in the state since Reconstruction.Clark, a Holmes County native, was elected to the House in 1967 and served until his retirement in 2004. He was elected speaker pro tempore by the House membership in 1993 and held that second-highest House position until his retirement.The Senate and House honored the 96-year-old veteran lamaker last week.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0KWdPr_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0KWdPr_0zYuRh6y00" width="2000" height="1324" ><figcaption>A Mississippi state trooper salutes the coffin of former State Rep. and House Speaker Pro Tem Robert Clark Jr. before the changing of the honor guard in the State Capitol rotunda Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Jackson. Clark was the first Black legislator in the state since Reconstruction.</figcaption></figure>“Robert Clark … broke so many barriers in the state of Mississippi with class, resolve and intellect. So he is going to be sorely missed,” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said last week.Hosemann was among those who came Sunday to honor Clark. So did House Speaker Jason White, who like Clark hails from Holmes County. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2d5pbi_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2d5pbi_0zYuRh6y00" width="2000" height="1372" ><figcaption>Rep. Bryant Clark (center) chats with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Sunday, March 9, 2025, in the State Capitol Rotunda where Rep. Clark’s father, Robert Clark Jr. lies in repose. Robert Clark Jr. a former state representative and House speaker pro tem, was the first Black legislator in the state since Reconstruction.</figcaption></figure>Clark was the only Black Mississippian serving in the Legislature from until 1976 and was ostracized when first elected, sitting at a desk by himself for years without the traditional deskmates. But he rose to become a respected leader.An educator when elected to the House, Clark served 10 years as chair of the House Education Committee, including when the historic Education Reform Act of 1982 was passed.Clark served as the only Black Mississippian serving in the Legislature from 1968 until 1976.“He was a trailblazer and icon for sure,” White said last week.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=44mk8n_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=44mk8n_0zYuRh6y00" width="2000" height="1323" ><figcaption>Former state Rep. and House Speaker Pro Tem Robert Clark Jr. lies in state at the State Capitol rotunda on Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Jackson. Clark was the first Black legislator in the state since Reconstruction.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0oSUEh_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0oSUEh_0zYuRh6y00" width="2000" height="1325" ><figcaption>Respects are paid to former state Rep. and House Speaker Pro Tem Robert Clark Jr. lying in state at the State Capitol Rotunda on Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Jackson. Clark was the first Black legislator in the state since Reconstruction.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2uSmUq_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2uSmUq_0zYuRh6y00" width="2000" height="1324" ><figcaption>Respects are paid to former state Rep. and House Speaker Pro Tem Robert Clark Jr. lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda 0n Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Jackson. Clark was the first Black legislator in the state since Reconstruction.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3zXym3_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3zXym3_0zYuRh6y00" width="2000" height="1375" ><figcaption>Family and friends gathered in the Capitol Rotunda to pay their respects to former state Rep. and House Speaker Pro Tem Robert Clark Jr. lies at the State Capitol on Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Jackson. Clark was the first Black legislator in the state since Reconstruction.</figcaption></figure>This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<h2>On this day in 1965</h2>Bymississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2025-03-13 07:00:00On this day in 1965by Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today March 13, 2025<h2>March 13, 1965</h2><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4bQhbj_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4bQhbj_0zYuRh6y00" width="1200" height="675" ><figcaption>Marion Myles became the first Black faculty member at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.</figcaption></figure>Dr. Marion Myles accepted a position at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Three months later, the vice chancellor appointed her an assistant professor of pharmacology, the first Black American on the faculty. Her appointment came over the objections of some members of the board of trustees of the state Institutions of Higher Learning. Prior to accepting the appointment, Myles taught biology, botany, agronomy and zoology at several universities. An expert in plant physiology, she studied the effects of drugs and hormones on plant growth. She received a Carnegie Foundation Research Grant and was awarded research fellowships at the California Institute of Technology and at the Institute of Nuclear Studies at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The same year that the medical center appointed her, the center offered a residency slot to Dr. Aaron Shirley, the first Black resident.This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<h2>‘A good start’: Senate passes pharmacy benefit manager reform bill</h2>Bymississippitoday.org – Gwen Dilworth – 2025-03-12 17:19:00<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4cBErP_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4cBErP_0zYuRh6y00" width="2000" height="1318" ></figure>The Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would increase the regulation and transparency of pharmacy benefit managers, which advocates argue will protect patients and independent pharmacists. The legislation, authored by Sen. Rita Parks, R-Corinth, beefs up a House of Representatives bill focusing on the transparency of pharmacy benefit managers by adding language to tighten appeal procedures, bar the companies from steering patients to affiliate pharmacies and prohibit spread pricing – the practice of paying insurers more for drugs than pharmacists in order to inflate pharmacy benefit managers’ profits. Parks said the bill, which passed 46-4, has the support of the House, which can now send it to the governor’s desk to sign or go to conference with the Senate to negotiate changes. “This is the furthest we’ve been in two years,” said Parks. “We’re bringing fairness to the patient and to independent pharmacists.” The bill’s passage came after a strong showing of support for reform from independent pharmacists, who have warned that if legislators do not pass a law this year to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, which serve as middlemen in the pharmaceutical industry, some pharmacies may be forced to close. They say that the companies’ low payments and unfair business practices have left them struggling to break even.The Senate’s original bill died in the House, but the body revived most of its language by inserting it into a similar House bill, House Bill 1123, which was authored by House Speaker Jason White. The Senate made several concessions in the most recent version of the legislation, including forgoing a provision that would have required pharmacy benefit managers to reimburse prescription discount card claims within seven days. These claims are currently paid within 60 to 90 days, which pharmacists argue is a burdensome timeframe. The bill is a “good start” to real pharmacy benefit manager reform and transparency, said Robert Dozier, the executive director of the Mississippi Independent Pharmacy Association.“The independent pharmacists are pleased with the current form of House Bill 1123,” he said. “They did not get everything they wanted, but they got what they needed.” The bill also gives the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy more tools to conduct audits and requires drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers and health insurers to submit data to the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy, which will be available to the public. Sen. Jeremy England, R-Ocean Springs, said he is concerned the bill will lead to higher health insurance costs for employers, including the state itself, which provides health insurance to state employees. Pharmacy benefit managers negotiate rebates, or cost savings, for employers, and some critics of pharmacy benefit manager reform argue that regulating the companies’ business practices will lead to higher insurance costs for employers. England said that Mississippi employers stand to lose tens of millions of dollars and that regulation could deter new businesses from coming to the state. “This language that we are trying to put into state law here goes too far, in fact it goes to the point where it could end up costing jobs,” he said.A vote requested by England to determine if a fiscal note is necessary for the bill failed. Parks said she disagreed that the bill would raise state health insurance costs and called England’s concerns a “scare tactic” meant to deter legislators from passing the bill.England also proposed an amendment to the bill to remove self-funded insurance plans, or health plans in which employers assume the financial risk of covering employees’ health care costs themselves, from a section of the bill that prohibits pharmacy benefit managers from steering patients to specific pharmacies and interfering with their right to choose a particular pharmacy. Self-funded health plans often use pharmacy benefit managers to administer prescription drug benefits and process claims. Parks argued that excluding self-funded health plans from those guidelines would remove the fundamental protections the bill affords pharmacies and patients. England’s amendment failed. “Mississippi’s been a beacon in where we have stood with PBM,” Parks said. “We need to continue to be that beacon and not go backwards.”This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.Podcast: Raymond basketball coach Tony Tadlock joins to talk about high school basketball championships and this week’s SEC Tournament.Bymississippitoday.org – Rick Cleveland and Tyler Cleveland – 2025-03-12 12:00:00<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4OKb4I_0zYuRh6y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4OKb4I_0zYuRh6y00" width="2000" height="1125" ></figure>One of the state’s top basketball coaches, Tadlock overcame the loss of all five starters from last year’s championship team and losing his leading scorer this season, to win a second straight state championship and the seventh in school history. Tadlock talks about how he works with a 40-man basketball roster and maintaining a remarkable winning culture at Raymond.Stream all episodes here.This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.</div></body>

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Mississippitoday.org – Vickie King – 2025-03-09 20:22:00. Mississippians honor first Black lawmaker since Reconstruction. Former Mississippi Rep. Robert Clark Jr. lay in state Sunday in the Capitol Rotunda as family, friends, officials and fellow citizens paid respect to the first Black legislator in the state since Reconstruction. Clark,...

Mississippians honor first Black lawmaker since Reconstruction

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Mississippitoday.org – Vickie King – 2025-03-09 20:22:00. Mississippians honor first Black lawmaker since Reconstruction. Former Mississippi Rep. Robert Cl

Mississippians honor first Black lawmaker since Reconstruction

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