Alphonso M. (Mike) Espy

Congressman Mike Espy represented Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District from 1987 until his resignation to become Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1993 (100th-103rd Congresses). When elected to Congress, Espy became the first African American to represent Mississippi at the federal level since Reconstruction. Before coming to Congress, Espy was an attorney with Central Mississippi Legal Services and served as assistant secretary of State to Mississippi Legal Services, assistant secretary of the State to the Public Lands Division, and assistant State attorney general. In the House, Espy served on the Agriculture and Budget Committees. He also served on the Select Committee on Hunger. As a freshman, he sponsored the Lower Mississippi River Valley Delta Development Act, which established a nine-member panel to study the region’s widespread poverty and created a plan for economic development along the banks of the Mississippi River. The governors of participating states (Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois) selected the commission’s members. In his fourth term, Clinton appointed Espy as the 25th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Espy was the first African American and the first Mississippian to receive the appointment. Espy earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Howard University and a Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law in California.