Taylor (born 1969), film director of The Help and Get On Up (Jackson) Larry A. Thompson (born 1944), television and film producer (Clarksdale) Jurists and lawyers Rhesa Barksdale (born 1944), federal judge (Jackson) Neal Brooks Biggers Jr. (born 1935), U.S. district judge (Corinth) William Joel Blass (1917–2012), attorney (Wiggins/Gulfport) Debra M. Brown (born 1963), U.S. district judge (Yazoo City) Gerald Chatham (1906–1956), lawyer, lead prosecutor in the Emmett Till case (Hernando) Bobby DeLaughter (born 1954), prosecutor, judge (Jackson) Jess H. Dickinson (born 1947), associate justice, Supreme Court of Mississippi (Charleston) Boyce Holleman (1924–2003), attorney (Wiggins/Gulfport) Perry Wilbon Howard (1877–1961), assistant U.S. attorney general, Republican leader (Ebenezer) Lucy Somerville Howorth (1895–1997), attorney, judge, state legislator (Greenville) E. Grady Jolly (born 1937), judge of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (Louisville) W. Allen Pepper Jr. (1941–2012), U.S. district judge (Greenwood) Charles W. Pickering (born 1937), U.S. district judge (Jones County) Thomas Rodney (1744–1811), U.S. territorial judge (Natchez) Richard "Dickie" Scruggs (born 1946), attorney (Pascagoula) Constance Slaughter-Harvey (born 1946), judge and attorney (Forest) Michael B. Thornton (born 1954), judge, U.S. Tax Court (Hattiesburg) Michael Wallace (born 1951), lawyer (Biloxi) James R. Williams (1936–2020), lawyer, U.S. attorney (Columbus) Military figures William Wirt Adams (1819–1888), brigadier general, CSA (Jackson) Van T. Barfoot (1919–2012), World War II colonel and Medal of Honor recipient (Edinburg) William Barksdale (1821–1863), brigadier general, CSA, died at Gettysburg (Jackson) William Billingsley (1887–1913), ensign, first Navy aviator killed in an airplane crash (Winona) Alvin C. Cockrell (1918–1942), second lieutenant, USMC, killed in World War II (Hazelhurst) Fox Conner (1874–1951), major general, U.S. Army, mentor to Dwight Eisenhower (Slate Springs) Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877), general, CSA (Hernando) Jeffery Hammond (born 1978), major general, U.S. Army (Hattiesburg) Randolph M. Holder (1918–1942), USN lieutenant (junior grade) (Jackson) Felix Huston (1800–1857), general, Texas army (Natchez) Samuel Reeves Keesler (1896–1918), Army aviator (Greenwood) Newt Knight (1837–1922), Unionist leader (Jones County) Roy Joseph Marchand (1920–1942), World War II fireman first class (Crandall) Henry Pinckney McCain (1861–1941), adjutant general, US Army (Carroll County) John S. McCain Sr. (1884–1945), USN admiral (Teoc) Donald H. Peterson (1933–2018), USAF colonel and NASA astronaut (Winona) Charles Read (1840–1890), naval officer (Meridian) Viola B. Sanders (1921–2013), USN captain, director of women, U.S. Navy (Sidon) Daniel Isom Sultan (1885–1947), inspector general, U.S. Army (Oxford) James Monroe Trotter (1842–1892), first man of color to achieve rank of 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Army, music historian (Gulfport) Richard