Mississippi town stunned by killing of gay candidate
JACKSON, Miss. — A murder charge has been laid in the death an openly gay black candidate for mayor that has stunned the famous blues Mecca of Clarksdale in the conservative Mississippi Delta.
Marco McMillian, 34, was considered by many to be a man on the rise, and campaign spokesman Jarod Keith said the Democrat may have been the first openly gay man to be a viable candidate for public office in the Southern state.
Lawrence Reed, 22, of Shelby, is charged with murder, the Coahoma County Sheriff ’s Department said Thursday.
Authorities had been looking for McMillian since Tuesday morning, when a man had crashed the candidate’s SUV into another vehicle. McMillian was not in the car.
His body was discovered near a Mississippi River levee Wednesday.
McMillian was a candidate for mayor of Clarksdale and was well-known in the community and beyond.
Photos on McMillian’s website and Facebook page show him with a younger Barack Obama and former president Bill Clinton. He met them while serving for four years as international executive director of the historically black Phi Eta Sigma Fraternity Inc. The fraternity said he had secured the first federal contract to raise awareness about the impact of HIV and AIDS on communities of colour. It noted that Ebony Magazine had recognized him in 2004 as one of the nation’s “30 upand-coming African Americans” under age 30.
Supporters say McMillian had big ideas for Clarksdale, a town of about 17,800 people that is well known to blues fans as the home of the crossroads where Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the devil for guitar wizardry.
Academy Award-winning actor and Mississippi native Morgan Freeman is part owner of the ground zero Blues Club in town.