The election in Vicksburg of that city’s first black mayor occurred more than 10 years ago.

Robert Major Walker, a history teacher, won the race when the city’s voting population was 52 percent white and 48 percent black, said state Rep. Mike Chaney, a Vicksburg Republican.

&uot;When we elected Robert, I didn’t look at it as a race issue but who could do the best job,&uot;

Chaney said. &uot;Robert was a person who was conscientious about his job and involved in the community.&uot;

When Walker was defeated in 1993, it was by a black-majority voting population, Chaney said. Again, the vote was based on performance and not on race, he said.

Chaney, who served in the state House of Representatives before his election to the Senate, knows Phillip West from working with him in the House and before and after that, as well.

&uot;I’ve served with Phillip. He’s mellowed a great deal from the first time I worked with him,&uot; Chaney said. &uot;He’s a little more conciliatory.&uot;

Chaney said West’s decision to support the appointment by President Bush of U.S. Judge Charles W. Pickering of the Southern Mississippi District to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was a bold move.

&uot;It takes a lot of courage to buck the Black Caucus,&uot; Chaney said, referring to the state organization over which West presided until recently. Pickering is Republican and the father of U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering of the state’s Third District, which includes Natchez.

Many members of the Black Caucus and of other historically black political groups opposed Pickering, citing his performance as judge during the Civil Rights era in the state. West has said he studied the issues and decided supporting Pickering was the right thing to do.

Chaney said Walker, like West, had been involved in boycotts. In Vicksburg, the boycotts occurred in the early 1970s; in Natchez, in the late 1980s.

&uot;Robert had to overcome that, too. The way he did it was when he was a county supervisor, always voting fairly.&uot;

Gordon Cotton, well-known historian and curator of the Old Courthouse Museum in Vicksburg, said the historical importance of the moment was not lost on him when Robert Walker was elected.

&uot;I thought to myself, this is the way it ought to be. We shouldn’t care what color a person is. We just want the person who can do the best job.&uot;

As Natchez, Vicksburg already

had elected blacks to alderman and county supervisor positions when Walker was chosen mayor, Chaney said.

In 1871, during the Reconstruction era, Natchez elected Robert H. Wood as mayor. Natchez was the only city in Mississippi to elect an African-American to the mayor’s office during that period.

Wood went on to become sheriff of Adams County. He also served as postmaster.