Not one legislator has attacked the Governor for not appointing a LBGBTQXYZ to the board.
Black legislative and higher education leaders are protesting Gov. Phil Bryant’s appointees to the state College Board, saying they lack diversity and representation of historically black public universities.
The protest came shortly before a Senate committee on Thursday passed the last three of Bryant’s four new appointees – including one African American – to the full Senate for ratification. It also comes as the College Board is under fire for the ouster of Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones.
“Gov. Bryant’s College Board appointments damage higher education and disrespect Alcorn, Mississippi Valley and Jackson State universities,” said Sen. Kenny Wayne Jones, D-Canton, chair of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus. “For the first time in 50 years, these state institutions will not have a voice on the IHL board.”
The Black Caucus and the Mississippi Coalition on Black Higher Education in a press conference at the Capitol on Thursday called for Bryant to reconsider his appointments. Jones said the caucus will vote against Bryant’s appointments in the Senate, which must ratify them with a majority vote. The caucus has 12 members in the 52-member Senate.[…]
ryant spokeswoman Nicole Webb defended the governor’s appointees, saying there’s been diversity in his appointment to the College Board and other positions.
In a statement Webb said: “In 2012, Gov. Bryant appointed a woman and an African American man to the IHL Board of Trustees. This year, he appointed an African American graduate of Tougaloo College to the Board of Trustees. He has appointed a woman to the Board of Education and a woman to the Worker’s Compensation Commission. He also recently appointed an African American, Jerry Griffith Sr., to the Mississippi Gaming Commission. This is the first time in the history of the Gaming Commission an African American has been appointed.”
Webb also said Bryant’s first appointment as governor was Maj. Gen. Leon Collins, the first African American adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard.[…]
State Sen. Hillman Frazier, a member of the Universities and Colleges Committee, said it was no reflection on new appointees, but he was concerned that no female was among them.
“They should be at the table,” Frazier said. “It’s a step backward not to have women at the table.”