Born March 18, 1933
Lula, Mississippi

Mayor and civil rights activist

Unita Blackwell was inspired to join the civil rights movement in the early 1960s by student activists. She registered voters, helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and worked to improve housing conditions in low-income African American communities throughout the American South. In retaliation, Blackwell was arrested and jailed more than seventy times and had a cross burned on her lawn by the Ku Klux Klan (a group that advocates white supremacy).

In 1976 Blackwell was elected mayor of Mayersville, Mississippi, the town where she had lived since 1960. She then led an initiative to incorporate Mayersville as a legally recognized municipality, in order to bring basic services to the town’s residents. With only an eighth grade education, Blackwell returned to school and earned a master’s degree in regional planning. In 1989 Blackwell was elected to...