Douglas Leavon Anderson (February 18, 1939 – April 13, 2013) was an American educator and politician from

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. Anderson, a Democrat, was first elected to the

Mississippi House of Representatives The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi. According to the state constitution of 1890, it is to comprise no more than 122 members elected fo ...

in 1976. He served in that office until 1980, when he won election to the

Mississippi State Senate The Mississippi Senate is the upper house of the Mississippi Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Senate, along with the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, convenes at the Mississippi State Capitol ...

. He served in the State Senate until 1992. Elected in 1976, Anderson, Horace Buckley and Fred Banks were among the first four African-Americans elected to the

Mississippi Legislature The Mississippi Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The bicameral Legislature is composed of the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, with 122 members, and the upper Mississippi State Senate, with 52 me ...

in the twentieth century after

Robert G. Clark, Jr. Robert G. Clark Jr. (born October 3, 1928) is an American politician who served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1968 to 2004, representing the 47th district. He was the first African-American member of the Mississippi Legislature ...

, who was elected in 1967. He served from 1994 until his death in 2013 on the

Hinds County Hinds County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. With its county seats ( Raymond and the state's capital, Jackson), Hinds is the most populous county in Mississippi with a 2020 census population of 227,742 residents. Hinds Cou ...

Board of Supervisors. Anderson taught in public schools in

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the count ...

and his native

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

and as an associate professor of mathematics at

Jackson State University Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a public historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is one of the largest HBCUs in the United States and the fourth largest university in Mississippi in terms of studen ...

from 1965 to 1987.

References

1939 births 2013 deaths Politicians from Jackson, Mississippi Democratic Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives Democratic Party Mississippi state senators African-American state legislators in Mississippi County supervisors in Mississippi Schoolteachers from Mississippi African-American schoolteachers Dillard University alumni University of Oklahoma alumni Jackson State University faculty 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people {{Mississippi-politician-stub