More than 60 years after working alongside Fannie Lou Hamer, the Miss. congressman reflects on mentoring Colom and witnessing a historic Senate victory that generations of Black voters and civil rights activists helped make possible.
More than 60 years after the famed civil rights and voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer launched her unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Congress, Scott Colom‘s historic U.S. Senate election is giving new hope to Mississippi.
For U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the moment is very personal.
“It brings tears to you,” the congressman told theGrio as he reflected on Wednesday night’s victory in which Colom became the first Black American elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi since post-slavery Reconstruction in 1881.
Thompson, 78, stands at the center of a decades-long history in Mississippi, where Black political power has been stifled by historical racism, disenfranchisement and racial violence. As a teenager, he joined Fannie Lou Hamer’s 1964 campaign for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I worked with her in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as a young, impressionable college student,” he recalled.
Hamer, who was brutally beaten in a jail cell after being arrested for protesting the South’s racial segregation laws, ultimately lost her bid for Congress as a result of the disenfranchisement of Black voters. Mississippi is also where civil rights activist Medgar Evers, who organized boycotts in protest of the Jim Crow South, was assassinated outside his home in Jackson.
“All that hard work, all that abuse, and in some instances, all the tragedy associated with just trying to make this state live out the real meaning of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens,” reflected Rep. Thompson.
To see Colom do what no Black American has been able to do in Mississippi in nearly 150 years is a “full-circle” moment for Thompson, who mentored the 43-year-old U.S. Senator-elect.
“He was in the first class of our Mississippi Black Leadership Institute, which we put together to look at how do we help Mississippians of color make a contribution, whether it’s in politics or public service in some capacity, or just a better citizen,” said Thompson.
On Wednesday night, while delivering his much-anticipated victory speech, Colom praised Thompson and said his victory would not have been possible without the senior congressman’s mentorship.
“From the bottom of my heart, I hope Congressman Thompson understands that this victory is a testament to his leadership, his vision, and his political strategy,” Colom said in front of hundreds at the HBCU, Tougaloo College, where Thompson attended in the 1960s.
Thompson told theGrio he was “humbled” by Colom giving him his flowers and equally commended the Senator-elect for being a “good listener” and having “unlimited energy” throughout the campaign cycle. He also saluted Colom for going so far as to show up at a Trump rally to convert voters.
“I didn’t think he’d [do that]…and work the crowd. But it turned out to be one hell of a move on his part,” said the congressman.
For years, Thompson has been the lone Democrat and Black representative for Mississippi, and will now be joined by Colom, whom he is excited to work with as a “partner” to bring more federal resources to the nation’s poorest state.
“It feels good because I now have someone who understands the needs of a state like Mississippi,” said Thompson, who cited health care, housing and education as major challenges for the “needy state.”
Calling out the recent federal cuts administered by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress, he added, “We can’t afford to balance the budget off the backs of the neediest people in our state.”
Rep. Thompson relished the historic victory of Colom, which he said was made possible despite the national Democratic Party’s “lackluster” attention and investments.
“I guess that’s what made the victory sweeter,” he said. “The only thing we owe is to, for the most part, the citizens of this great state who washed cars, who sold fish dinners, who did the hard work of just trying to keep enough resources coming to keep the lights on. That’s the beauty of Scott’s campaign.”
As he reflects on the past and present of Mississippi’s Black political power and what has been made possible by their sacrifices and hard work, Thompson said he’s most excited about what Colom’s win will mean for Mississippi’s young people.
Perhaps it was no coincidence that Colom’s campaign victory event was held on a Black college campus.
“For [Colom] to do his acceptance speech in front of the chapel where all the civil rights legends had spoken from speaks volumes,” said Thompson. “And to see the choir behind him and the other young folk involved in that, they’ll never forget that.”
He added, “So it’s not so much for somebody like me who participated. It’s what the next generation who saw that night will carry forward in Scott’s legacy and the legacy of so many who have appeared before them.”
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