Nov 13, 2026 · 9 min
Mississippi voters reclaim a legacy of Black political power
Mississippi Matters
Scott Colom’s victory becomes a lens on how Mississippi’s Black political leadership survived decades of violence, suppression, and organized local resistance.
- 1Scott Colom’s election marks the first time Mississippi voters directly chose a Black U.S. senator.
- 2Reconstruction-era senators Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce established an earlier tradition of Black leadership in Mississippi.
- 3The victory links Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, faith communities, and local organizers to today’s fight for voting rights.
Don't miss
Scott Colom’s victory speech invokes Hiram Revels, Medgar Evers, and Fannie Lou Hamer while honoring the local people who organized the campaign.
The brief
The Associated Press call declaring Scott Colom the winner of Mississippi’s Senate race marked the first direct election of a Black senator by the state’s voters.
Heather Cox Richardson traces that breakthrough to Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, Mississippi’s first Black senators, whose Reconstruction-era service challenged the limits imposed on Black political power.
The episode then follows the violent backlash: Mississippi’s 1890 constitutional convention established tools such as poll taxes, literacy requirements, and voter-list purges that stripped Black citizens of political power.
Medgar Evers’s organizing, voter-registration work, and assassination show how Mississippi’s struggle continued into the civil-rights era, with his legacy later shaping Colom’s campaign appeal.
Colom’s victory speech names Revels, Evers, and Fannie Lou Hamer while crediting ordinary local people whose organizing and faith made the historic result possible.
Weekly email
State of the Pod, every Monday
The week's most-discussed names and stories from podcasts, with the moments behind them. Free, five minutes, unsubscribe in one click.