Editing Holmes County, Mississippi (section)

==Notable people==
* [[Homer Casteel]], politician and public servant; lieutenant governor 1920 to 1924; member of the [[Mississippi Public Service Commission]] from 1936 to 1952.
* [[Robert G. Clark, Jr.]], teacher, coach and politician; in 1967 he was elected to the state legislature as the first African-American member since Reconstruction; he was elected to eight consecutive four-year terms and as Speaker of the state House in 1992, 1996 and 2000.<ref name="msu"/>
* [[Steven Fonti]], animator and storyboard artist, was born in Holmes County.
* [[Perry Wilbon Howard II|Perry Wilbon Howard]], attorney and Republican Party National Committeeman, was appointed to a national position in the Department of Justice under President [[Warren G. Harding]], serving into [[Herbert Hoover]]'s administration. He was the highest-ranking African American in government.
* [[Arenia Mallory]], principal and president of [[Saints Academy (Mississippi)|Saints Academy]]. She had a more than 50-year career with this school, which she built into an academically successful, nationally known private school for black children during the segregation years, also expanding to a junior college. A leader in African-American women's national organizations, she served in the [[John F. Kennedy]] administration.
* [[Edmond Favor Noel]], Governor of Mississippi, 1908–1912, was born to a planter family in [[Lexington, Mississippi|Lexington]]. He became an attorney and politician, serving in the state house and then the state senate both before and after his tenure as governor. He improved education in the state.
* Edmond F. Noel Sr (1916-1986), physician, born in Holmes County and reared in [[Jackson, Mississippi]], was a [[Howard University]] and [[Fisk University]] graduate, and a World War II veteran. Recruited to practice in [[Denver, Colorado]] in 1949, he was the first African-American physician in the city to be granted staff hospital privileges.<ref>[http://coloradohealthcarehistory.com/hospitals-rose-medical-center.html "The Origin of Rose Medical Center, Denver, Colorado"], Colorado Health Care History</ref><ref name= "dp080205">{{cite news|first1 =Claire |last1= Martin|title = Activist Led the Way to School Integration| work= Denver Post| date = February 5, 2008|url= http://www.denverpost.com/2008/02/04/activist-led-way-to-school-integration/}}</ref>
* Edmond "Eddie" F. Noel (1926-1990), was born and lived in Lexington. An African-American veteran of World War II, he killed three white men in January 1954, including a deputy sheriff, and evaded capture for three weeks, making national news. He was hunted by numerous men, dogs, and even observers in planes. He turned himself in to the court, and the judge ordered a mental evaluation. Noel was committed by the court to the state mental institution, where he was held for more than a decade. He was released in 1970 and lived his last 20 years with his family, who had migrated to [[Fort Wayne, Indiana]].<ref>[http://www.desototimes.com/opinion/strange-true-story-about-eddie-noel/article_a9b0b986-02dd-5c9c-b81e-a7623d5871b0.html Bill Minor, "Strange true story about Eddie Noel"], ''DeSoto Times'', August 11, 2010, accessed November 25, 2015</ref><ref>Allie Povall, ''The Time of Eddie Noel'', Comfort Publishing, 2010</ref>
* [[Hazel Brannon Smith]], publisher and journalist, in 1935 purchased ''The Durant News'' and ''The Lexington Advertiser'' in Lexington; she published them for decades and was noted in the region for her fair coverage and later support of civil rights. She opposed the [[White Citizens Council]], which conducted an advertising boycott against her papers. In 1964 she was the first woman to win a [[Pulitzer Prize]] for editorial writing, for her editorials on civil rights, the same year her paper in Jackson, ''The Northside Reporter'', was firebombed. She was forced out of business.