Twenty years ago this spring, Taylorsville native Nic Lott capped off the 38 years since James Meredith’s enrollment by becoming the first
African American Associated Student Body president in Ole Miss history.
Now active in Mississippi politics as a registered Republican, Lott ran unsuccessfully for his party’s nomination for central district public service commissioner, despite earning the endorsement of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
Lott worked in both the Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant administrations, serving most recently as director of special compliance operations for the Mississippi Development Authority.
He is on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights State Advisory Committee, as well as the boards of Congress of Racial Equality, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mississippi, Mississippi Community Education Center, and the University of Mississippi Central Alumni Board. Lott has contributed to both CNN and Fox News and Jackson-area radio stations.
Some possible sources for this story besides Lott include Trent Lott; then-Chancellor Robert Khayat; Lott’s opponent for ASB president, Scott Walker (a businessman who served over a year in federal custody from 2014-16 for fraud) and Dr. Marvin Overby, director of the school of public affairs at Penn State-Harrisburg, who was Lott’s political science professor at Ole Miss.