George H. Oliver (Coahoma County)
State House: 1890-1891
Born: June 1857 in Georgia
Teacher and administrator for many decades.
Oliver first appears on the census in 1870 with his parents, Madison and Mary Oliver, and siblings in Forsyth, Georgia. Sometime in the mid-1870s, the family moved to Coahoma County, where they appear on the 1880 census.
Oliver is listed on the 1900 census in Claiborne County with wife Susan Gilmer (m. 1891 in Lowndes County) and two children, George and Lillian. By the time of the 1910 census, he was divorced and back in Clarksdale, with school superintendent as his occupation (Susan, George Jr., and Lillian were living in Leland). In 1920, 1930, and 1940, he was still working in education in Clarksdale, living with wife Alice.
Alice Carter Oliver, born in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1887, was the first Black home demonstration agent in Mississippi, serving in that capacity for over thirty years. She retired in 1950 and died in 1958.
There is a George H. Oliver Elementary School in Clarksdale today.
Oliver is possibly one of the men shown in this portrait of the 1890 legislature, which is unlabeled.
This page was last updated on January 8, 2026.