Across racial lines, Mississippians celebrate Scott Colom’s historic election: ‘The times they are a’ changin’

Democrat Scott Colom made history this month, becoming Mississippi’s first Black senator since the Reconstruction era after defeating incumbent Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.The 43-year-old’s win also contributed to a Democratic majority of at least 55 seats in the Senate – the party’s largest midterm gains since 1986.Voters across the US reflected on the significance of Colom’s victory, with many older voters expressing hope that it could signal a new chapter for a state and region marked by a long history of racism and segregation. Others looked to Colom and a new generation of Democrats to deliver on key campaign promises, from tackling the cost of living and ending the US war with Iran to addressing the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies.Dye Bailey, a Black older adult in Grenada, Mississippi, said: “It makes me so proud to see Scott Colom win the Senate because Mississippi has been trying to [prevent] Black people from voting for our rights for so long. Mississippi is so racist, but I’m proud that all [of] Mississippi can [come] together as one people.”Bailey added that she hopes Colom will fight for healthcare for all Mississippians, “feed[ing] the needy” and protect voting rights.For Greg P, a 71-year old retired professor based in Chicago who spent most of his childhood and young adulthood in Mississippi, Colom’s victory offers hope.“My father was an Episcopal priest, and my family was active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 70s. Our family had a cross burned into our rectory’s front lawn in 1971, and I was assaulted several times in my mid-teens by racists incensed by our activism,” he said.“What gives me hope is that Colom was able to speak to Black and white Mississippians, convincing Black voters that this time they could actually win, and persuading a significant percentage of whites that a Black senator would actually do better by them than a white one had for years.”He continued: “Whites in Mississippi would often tell me of the awful things they believed would happen to them ‘if the Blacks ever take over’, showing an absolute clarity about what whites had done to Black people there over the decades and centuries. They believed that revenge would be the first order of business. Now, it appears that a significant number of them have overcome that fear, which gives me great hope that others will come along that way in the future.”Like Greg, Catherine Park, a 64-year-old hospital lab director based in Newark, Delaware, sees Colom’s victory as a sign of change. Park grew up in south Mississippi in the 1970s, when the “KKK was a real presence in the state”.“I am so proud and excited for senator Colom. I have been watching the news daily over his growing lead. The times they are a’ changin’,” Park said. She added that she hoped he “makes a difference in one of the nation’s poorest states” and that “his example becomes a shining light to bring Mississippi out of the 19th century and into the 21st”.For Sherri Vacarella, a 75-year-old retired teacher based in Portland, Oregon, who grew up in Alabama during the 1950s and 1960s, Colom’s victory “is the most exciting change in southern politics in my long lifetime”.Sherri Vacarella. Photograph: Courtesy of Sherri Vacarella“The idea that he will represent Mississippi, a state that has tried to prevent Black representation since Reconstruction, is particularly sweet to this progressive Democrat elder. I pray for his success and fully expect he’ll do an excellent job as Senator of Mississippi,” she said. “I’m optimistic that senator Colom will focus on affordability and offer legislation that will reduce costs and provide a more trustworthy national government, putting an end to ICE horrors, the Iran war, and Pete Hegseth.”Similarly, JJ Amaworo Wilson, a 57-year-old writer based in New Mexico who identifies as Anglo-Nigerian-American, said: “In the most racist state in a deeply racist country, this is an extraordinary result, a seismic shift. In the arena of modern electoral politics, it’s comparable only to [Barack] Obama’s ascension to the presidency. Colom knows his history. He knows his achievement comes in the aftermath of the civil rights struggle of Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King, John Lewis, and many others.”Wilson continued: “Colom has earned his place in history. Now he must focus on the present, particularly the cost of living and corruption. I hope he succeeds in improving the lives of everyone in Mississippi, including those who voted against him, because that’s his mandate and that’s how he’ll stay in office.”Charmaine Rehg, 74, who lives in Eugene, Oregon, and is originally from St Louis, Missouri, said Colom’s victory will “mean much more respect for Mississippi, which has been belittled for being ‘backwards’ and ‘redneck’”.Rehg recalled what she witnessed growing up and traveling through the south on family vacations to Florida, saying: “We saw separate drinking fountains for ‘white’ and ‘colored.’ We saw separate bathrooms on a train we took one year. In Florida, Black people weren’t allowed on the public beach. So I’m ecstatic to see this win, especially in Mississippi. This fits in with much other change in the south.”Looking ahead, Rehg said she hopes Colom will pursue a range of policy changes, including a “healthcare system more in line with those in Europe”.“We have a vastly overpriced and fragmented system. Also, housing is overpriced, which I hope he addresses. And I hope he addresses environmental degradation. His state is on the Gulf coast, where there is a history of offshore oil spills and pollution, in particular fertilizer runoff from the land carried by the Mississippi River to the Gulf, causing dead zones due to algae blooms,” she said.“And I want him to help get this country to stop the war with Iran, to not support [Benjamin] Netanyahu, and to help Ukraine,” Rehg added.