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A Clerk’s Work is Never Done
The woman who helped others get elected now fills the demanding role of chancery clerk.
hen she returned to Greenville after college, Marilyn Hansell threw herself into the effort to re-elect the city’s first black councilwoman, Sarah Johnson. “It was an opportunity to do something for the community and to practice the political science I had been studying,” said Hansell, who coordinated the successful campaign.
B Y N O R M A N S E AW R I G H T I I I
After that, when elections rolled around, she always seemed to be involved — local races, county races, gubernatorial races — but always behind the scenes. She worked on Robert Clark’s losing congressional campaign and was the regional church coordinator on Mike Espy’s winning one. And she worked as field director for Bennie Thompson when he was elected to Congress. Then she went to work for Thompson, and Hansell found that helpful organizations were disappearing from the Delta as funding eroded. “There was still a need in the Delta to do some things,” Hansell said. “We had found ourselves in the congressional office really taking on the aspect of a lot of development groups that were supposed to have been working in the Delta, so when constituents contacted us about sewer projects or water projects, we got involved.” She ran for chancery clerk in 1999. She has found the job rewarding but realized she had much to learn once she got the job. “A lot of what I learned, I learned by participating in training,” she said. The state requires yearly training offered by the Mississippi Judicial College.
She has a busy job. In Mississippi, chancery court is also family court. It deals with child custody, child support, adoption, divorce, probate matters, equity and land, as well as collecting delinquent taxes. On top of that, she is clerk to the board of supervisors and responsible for safekeeping countless county records. “When you start looking at the role of the chancery clerk, you begin to wonder, ‘How in the world can one person have all of those responsibilities?’ ” Hansell has 10 employees, and during the summer she employs high school and college interns. “They always like to come back,” she said. “I had a student last year, and he’s over at the junior college now, and he called me this morning.” “It’s a very unique position, but it’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to touch so many people. That’s what I like,” she said. Outside the office, Hansell is active with the Girl Scouts and the Progressive Art and Civics Club, affiliated with the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. She serves on the Mississippi State Democratic Executive Committee. She is proud of how her work
influenced her 27-year-old son, who has earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Southern Mississippi. Hansell, 56, loves Greenville but believes it could stand improvement. She said a common goal of local officials is to fix and clean up battered and messy areas of the city. Another age-old problem, racial tension, needs to be addressed if Greenville is to move forward, she said. “It’s for the key shareholders in the community to make it happen.” Hansell believes the fate of Mississippi is intertwined with the fate of the Delta: “So goes the Delta, so goes the state of Mississippi.” Standing on the steps of the courthouse and discussing her political career after so many campaigns helping others get elected, Hansell recalled one early race that wasn’t going so well. Voter apathy was a problem and she was tired and frustrated. She recalled the words of the late Greenville activist Charles Moore, who saw her frustration, smiled at her and told her to be patient. He told me, “Just remember, Marilyn, to the victor goes the spoils.”
FALL 2011 • 87
