The first African-American to hold an elected Clarke County commissioner’s office died Monday, Nov. 28. Jesse Robinson of Jackson was 95. For years, commissioners were elected from four districts but ran at large across the entire county. That effectively kept a black from being elected. The federal courts stepped in and ruled that was unfair and forced the county to make one of the districts a predominantly minority district and to limit voting to each district. District 4 became the minority district and Robinson was elected in a special election in September 1981 (the only other item on the ballot was...

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