Robert Gleed
Robert Gleed, Sr. (1836 – July 24, 1916) was a Republican state senator in Mississippi during the Reconstruction era. After several of his fellow African Americans were killed before an election in 1875 he relocated to Paris, Texas. He later returned to Columbus, Mississippi, but was chased away again. In 1871, he testified about the role of Southern newspapers and the Ku Klux Klan in fomenting violence and resistance to Reconstruction efforts in Mississippi in the years after the American Civil War. He resigned from the state senate in 1873 after the killing of seven "recalcitrant blacks". He had  four children. He campaigned for Sheriff in Lowndes County. He met with leading Democratic Party representatives and attempted to appease them before the election. He was unsuccessful and his home was attacked and burned as well as some of his neighbors' homes. He is buried in Sandfield Cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi.