Governor J.P. Coleman

James Plemon Coleman, born on a farm near Ackerman in 1914, had been a congressman's aide, district attorney, circuit judge, attorney general and state supreme court justice when he won the governorship in 1955. He ran on keeping the schools segregated. His term saw the legislature pass a resolution of interposition and create the State Sovereignty Commission, though he considered interposition legal poppycock. He worked with university leaders to block Clyde Kennard, a Black Army veteran, from Mississippi Southern College. Later he served on the Fifth Circuit, and he died in 1991.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge — 22 mi
  A 48,000-acre refuge of bottomland forest and lakes in Noxubee, Oktibbeha and Winston counties, rebuilt from worn-out farmland, with red-cockaded woodpeckers, alligators and winter eagles.
• L.V. Hull Legacy Center — 30 mi
  A folk artist's legacy campus on Allen Street in Kosciusko, opened in June 2026 a few doors from the National Register home and studio of L.V. Hull, the Unusual Artist.
• Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty Site — 32 mi
  A National Historic Landmark in rural Noxubee County where the Choctaw Nation signed away its last Mississippi land on September 27, 1830.

More markers nearby

• Governor Ray Mabus — steps away
• Ackerman — 0.3 mi
• Choctaw County Blues — 7.4 mi
• Legion Lodge — 13 mi