On Wednesday, Mississippi’s Senate race was officially called for Democrat Scott Colom, who will become the first Black person to represent the state in the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction more than 140 years ago. Colom’s victory is a stunning historic upset — and for many black Democrats, like Rep. Bennie Thompson, it took a while.
Thompson, who also won his race last week, has represented Mississippi’s majority-black 2nd Congressional District since 1993. Over the years, the 78-year-old lawmaker has frequently spoken about the story of his father, who was never able to vote due to racist Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation until the mid-1960s.
I sat with Thompson for Today, explained to talk about Colom’s Senate bid, how he won, what it means for Thompson personally.
Below is an excerpt from our conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more to the full podcast, so listen Today, explained anywhere you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Your father was never able to vote during his lifetime because of Jim Crow laws. And I wonder, growing up in Mississippi, what did you learn about who was allowed to participate in democracy?
You were a second-class citizen. That meant you could go to school, but you couldn’t go to school with the white kids. Or, the only swimming pool in town was reserved for white children, and black children had to swim in streams or ponds around the community. No lifeguard, nothing. My mother and father paid taxes, but they did not have the right to vote. My uncle fought in World War II; defended democracy around the world, but when he returned home he had to take a separate train behind white German prisoners.
So there were white soldiers, white German prisoners and black soldiers. And that was on the agenda. It’s something we grew up with.
When you were young, I wonder, did you associate the right to vote with the ability to make a difference? Like, if we can vote, then we can fix this mess?
The best thing I can say is that I went to Tougaloo College (near Jackson, Mississippi). And on that college campus, I met Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr. – all the major civil rights icons of the time.
This is how we cut our teeth in the area of civil rights and voting rights. The first campaign I worked on was Ms. Hamer’s for Congress.
Fannie Lou Hamer, civil rights icon.
And I now represent this district.
But I remember telling my mother that, oh, I went to Ruleville, Mississippi, to help register black people to vote in Congress. And my mother said, “Well, I don’t know why you’re up there.” He said: “Black people don’t vote here in Bolton. »And so it hit me. And Lord, have mercy. In my own hometown, you know, I was in the same situation. And we carried out voter registration. We did all sorts of things.
“For me, having gone through these life experiences and now seeing a Scott come along, you know, not only does it bring tears to your eyes, but it also says there is hope.”
We brought Head Start to the community and began to understand that true freedom comes with political freedom. So we started having meetings about what we wanted to do. We decided to run three people on the board and the three African-Americans won.
But it really wasn’t a good four years in this term because the current mayor didn’t want any progress. We therefore presented an entirely black list: mayor, clerk, alderman. We won all the positions.
We’re talking about 50 years ago, and all of these challenges that you faced, all of these challenges in being able to vote, being able to hold office, being able to function as mayor in such a segregated city. Fifty years later, Scott Colom made his mark in Mississippi.
I would like to ask you to think about when you became aware of her application and what you thought of her potential.
One of the challenges I’ve faced is that every time I run for public office, I’ve always been first. But I wanted to create some sort of vehicle to engage other people. So we created the Mississippi Black Leadership Institute. Well, Scott Colom was in first class. And he really said, “I want to run for something. I don’t know what it is.” He said, “But there is a district attorney position available. It’s three counties.”
We helped Scott build his campaign. We put him in contact with various people and he beat a prosecutor who had been in office for 28 years.
Well, because he had fire in his belly. And he never met a stranger. So we prepared him and he is one of our star students in this class. And look, uh, when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee didn’t support him, they…
They wouldn’t support it.
They wouldn’t support it. But that was my position: Bennie Thompson’s position is that Northeasterners still looked down on Southerners.
Well, did you call them and yell at Chuck Schumer or anyone else and say, “Guys, I’m telling you, we’ve got one here who can win?”»
Look, we’ve done everything the system says you should do. We gave the demographic data. This district (Colom) represented was not a majority African American district. He beat the sitting district attorney in a majority-white district because he had a plan and a message. We had a rich message, but a mediocre campaign. Because we couldn’t get help from our DSCC.
Have you called one of these people in leadership in the country and said, “I told you so?”
Oh yeah. All of a sudden, the week before the election, they’re going to say, “Well, we’re going to be able to do this, but we’re going to film the spot and we’ll send it to you.” So you really didn’t give us the money. Do you know what I’m saying?
So it’s okay. We’re going to continue to do our low-budget, social media-appealing thing. And that’s how it took off.
Are you 78 years old? Am I right?
This has been most of your life. The fight for this has lasted most of your life.
You are sitting here today, we are sitting here today. Where is your head in all this? Did you lock yourself in the bathroom and cry for 10 minutes?
No questions. I’m happy for Scott personally. His trajectory is formidable. But you know, it’s been a difficult journey. We had a poll tax that required us to pay money to be registered to vote. We had to interpret articles of the Constitution. In many cases, when my mother signed up — my mother had a college degree, she was a teacher — but the person who asked her to interpret the Constitution was an elementary school graduate. Do you see what I’m saying?
And so for me, having gone through these life experiences and now seeing a Scott come along, you know, not only does it bring tears to your eyes, but it also says that there is hope. There is hope for young African Americans that at some point the choice will be: Do I stay or do I go? It’s not going to be, “Well, when I get an education, I have to go somewhere else to look for a career.” »
And so that’s the exciting part. I’m just really happy. And for a guy who’s been in this business for over 50 years and is called anything but a child of God, because I try to raise people who look like me to where I know if they have it, they’ll do a great job. For Bennie Thompson, Scott’s victory is a dream come true.
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