JACKSON - 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 on Friday.
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," said Zander. "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, the planning consultant challenged the countywide election of state legislators. His lawsuit lead to the adoption of single-member legislative districts in 1979.
"All of us who are elected owe that election more so to Henry Kirksey than anyone else," U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Sunday. "So, if you are a supervisor, a judge, an alderman, or U.S. congressman, it's because Henry Kirksey helped Mississippi do what was in the interest of all its citizens."
State Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, and president of the Greenwood Voters League noted that Kirksey spoke to the organization "scores of times."
Ironically, more than 500 people attended the most recent Voters League banquet Friday night at the Leflore Civic Center and remembered those who had passed during the last year.
Kirksey was a featured speaker at the Voters League's second banquet in 1981 at New Zion Baptist Church, Jordan recalled.
Kirksey also filed suit to make public the records of the now defunct Sovereignty Commission, which had functioned as the state's segregation watchdog agency.
Kirksey was also pivotal in the change Jackson made from the commission form of government to the present mayor-council form.
"The state and community suffered such a great loss, not in just his accomplishments, but the consciousness that he raised," said Ivory Phillips, a Jackson State University professor who co-hosted a radio program with Kirksey. "That's where he will really be missed."
Kirksey was elected to the state Senate in 1979. He also made several unsuccessful bids for public office, including for governor, the U.S. Senate and mayor of Jackson.
In 1992, he joined Tougaloo College in north Jackson as an adjunct professor of political science.
Most recently, Kirksey opposed the construction of the Jackson Metro Parkway, which will connect west Jackson to downtown. In December 2001, construction began on the parkway. Kirksey felt the parkway was unnecessary and "violated people's rights to own property," Phillips said.
Zander said her father's ashes will be spread over the cemetery where his parents were laid to rest. A memorial service will be held in January.
He is also survived by his son, Henry Kirksey Jr. of Los Angeles, and three granddaughters.
