Leslie B. McLemore

Biography

Leslie B. McLemore is best known as an American civil rights activist, professor of political science and political leader. McLemore received a master's degree in political science from Atlanta University and a doctorate in government from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He taught at Jackson State University, was founding Chair of the Department of Political Science, later Dean of the Graduate School and Founding Director of the Office of Research, and interim president of Jackson State University in 2010. McLemore was a student leader in the civil rights movement. He was the first president of Rust college’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, coordinating activities including voter registration drives, and as a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1964 McLemore was involved in forming the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, becoming its vice-president and delegate to the 1964 Democratic National Convention. He co-founded the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy in 1997. McLemore served as a member of the Jackson City Council and as acting mayor for the City of Jackson in 2009.