The victory of Scott Colom in the Mississippi Senate Race is a glorious victory, as he is the first African American US Senator from that state since Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce in the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, about 150 years ago, and both those Senators selected by the state legislature, as all Senators were, until the 17th Amendment in 1913 mandated that all Senators are elected by the voters.
Colom is an extremely appealing and well qualified new Senator at age 43, with an impressive background as a District Attorney for the 16th Judicial District of Mississippi. He has the potential for a long, illustrious career and a leader in the Senate for the long term.
His victory brings back memories of the horrors in Mississippi, that led to violence and deaths of those pursuing the right to vote for African Americans, including NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers, murdered on June 12, 1963, whose widow, Myrlie Evers Williams, has spent her life promoting civil rights for the past six decades, and is still active today at age 93.
It also brings back the memory of three Civil Rights workers in Mississippi, murdered during the “Freedom Summer” campaign in Mississippi, which many courageous people from all over the nation, participated in promoting.
The three victims murderered on June 21, 1964 were James Chaney, who was African American; and two New York Jewish young men, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, both who had attended Queens College Of The City University of New York, in Flushing, Queens.
This author and blogger was a student at Queens College in that time period, but did not know or meet either Goodman or Schwerner, but their horrific deaths, along with Chaney, affected him deeply, and still, six decades later, mourns their deaths.
These murders helped to promote the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and much other similar legislation and actions under President Lyndon B. Johnson and the “Great Society”.
Now, six decades after these tragedies, Donald Trump, his administration, and the Republican Party, with contributions from the worst majority Supreme Court membership in a century, has cut back on Civil Rights enforcement dramatically.
But with the victory of Scott Colom, and the massive takeover of both houses of Congress by the Democratic Party, including victories in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and even Texas, the beginning of a “New South” seems on the horizon.
The effort is starting to reject the backward steps of conservatives over the past six decades, and the despicable back tracking of civil rights enforcement.
It seems clear that the new 120th Congress (2027-2029) is on the way to restoring and expanding civil rights for all Americans, once the Democrats take over control of Congress in January 2027.