Magnolia Bar Association

R. Jess Brown, Carsie Hall and Jack Young were the only African American lawyers handling civil rights cases in Mississippi for much of the 1950s and 1960s.^[1] They founded the Magnolia Bar Association, along with five members, in the fall of 1955.^[2][3]

In 1992, the association sued Mississippi's supreme court justices, governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and election commissioners, arguing that the system to elect justices to the Mississippi Supreme Court "impermissibly [diluted] black voting strength" under the Voting Rights Act.^[4]

In 1992, the Magnolia Bar Foundation, a charitable arm of the group, was founded.^[5]

The Magnolia Bar Association awards the R. Jess Brown Award.^[6] The organization has participated in legal workshops.^[7][8]

• Carsie Hall
• Carlton W. Reeves^[9]
• Melvin G. Cooper^[10]
• Lewis Howard Burke^[11]
• Lilli Evans Bass^[12]
• Patricia Wise, first female president^{[citation needed]}
• Edward Blackmon Jr.

• Pieter Teeuwissen, judge^[6]
• Toni Terrett, judge^[13]
• Robert Shuler Smith, District Attorney^[14]
• Tomie T. Green, judge^[15]
• Jaribu Hill^[16]

• Sidney Dillon Redmond
• Sidney R. Redmond
• Curtis Flowers, the association filed a brief in his case