Jackson Free Press

It's been a long slog for Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree, but now, after two elections drawn out by a contentious court battle, DuPree takes his place again as the hub city's leader for a fourth term.

DuPree, 59, hails from Fort Benning, Ga. He became Hattiesburg's first African American mayor in 2001 after serving as a board member for Hattiesburg Public Schools and as a Forrest County supervisor. He also has business experience. DuPree worked for Sears for 15 years in the 1980s and started his own real estate firm with his wife, Johnniece, in 1988. The couple married in 1972, and they have two daughters, April and Monica.

The Hattiesburg mayor has said that he's averse to playing political games for his own interests. DuPree grew up poor, and his mother was illiterate. Those life experiences inspired him to help disadvantaged people

"I'm not a politician, I'm a public servant," DuPree said in 2011, when he was running to secure the Democratic party's nomination for Mississippi's governorship. DuPree won the party primary, the first African American to do so since Reconstruction, although he lost the election to Gov. Phil Bryant.

In June, DuPree faced Republican Dave Ware in a pitched mayoral battle in Hattiesburg, resulting in a narrow 37-vote victory. Ware challenged the results in court, which resulted in do-over, a second special election monitored by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Mississippi secretary of state's office. DuPree won again, this time by 202 votes. Ware finally conceded Sept. 28 after the city counted the last absentee ballots.

"On behalf of all Democrats in Mississippi and around the country, I congratulate the Honorable Johnny L. DuPree, his family, friends and supporters upon his re-election to serve another term as Mayor of Hattiesburg," Rickey Cole, Chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party said in a statement. "We are proud of Mayor DuPree, and we know that he will continue to lead Hattiesburg with the same quiet dignity and unswerving dedication that have been the hallmarks of his long career as a public servant."

DuPree holds a doctorate in urban higher education from Jackson State University, which he earned in 2006. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1996 and 2000, respectively.