Contributions by Mississippians in the Foreign Service
People born, raised, or educated in Mississippi have made important contributions to America’s prosperity and security as members of the Foreign Service community. Here are some examples from ADST’s oral history collection:
- Dr. Vernon C. Johnson grew up on a farm in Clairborne County and, after serving in a segregated Army reconnaissance unit in World War II and earning a PhD in agricultural economics, he joined the Foreign Service in 1957 as part of what would become the U.S. Agency for International Development. He provided support to USAID agricultural programs in Vietnam in the late 1960s that offered farmers improved rice varieties and livestock techniques to counter Viet Cong influence in the villages. Read the rest of Johnson’s oral history in ADST’s collection.
- Gilbert R. Callaway got his early education in a one-room schoolhouse in Mattson on the Mississippi Delta, and joined the Foreign Service in 1966. As the press attaché in Moscow in 1977, he helped win Los Angeles Times reporter Bob Toth’s release from KGB detention on false espionage charges and escorted him from prison to the airport to ensure he was allowed to leave the Soviet Union. Learn more about his story in ADST’s collection.
- Born in Jackson, Craig G. Buck entered the Foreign Service in 1969 as an officer in the U.S. Agency for International Development. He set up the USAID Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina from scratch as the Dayton Accords were signed in 1995 in order to build the foundations for peace. His advocacy led to streamlining in USAID staffing procedures to enable rapid response to crises. Read more in his ADST oral history.
- Ray Marshall grew up in the Mississippi Baptist Orphanage and graduated from Millsaps College before serving in the Navy as part of U.S. occupation forces in Japan at the end of World War II. As U.S. Secretary of Labor in the late 1970s, he oversaw the labor attaché program and introduced direct consultation with labor ministries in key partner governments, advancing worker safety and labor standards. Learn more in his full ADST oral history.
- Born in Oxford and raised in Jackson, Elizabeth Shackelford entered the Foreign Service in 2010. She was the consular officer in Juba in 2013 when fighting broke out in the South Sudanese Civil War. Shackelford coordinated the evacuation of hundreds of American citizens and helped establish new State Department procedures for future evacuations. She resigned from the Foreign Service in 2017 in protest over U.S. foreign policy. Read Shackelford’s full oral history in ADST’s collection.