Black Mississippians celebrate a victory almost no one saw coming

The scene was 145 years in the making.Dozens of people filled a tiny room inside the historic Masonic Lodge Hall in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday, waiting to hear whether Scott Colom would become the state's next US Senator.The 70-year-old building is the permanent residence of the NAACP's state headquarters, where civil rights leaders, many of them there that night, worked for decades to create this moment.When a large speaker blared the news of Colom's win, it ended a long, anxious wait for results that came over a week after election day. The room exploded with emotion."Yes sir," one man yelled, dropping to the ground and moving his arms and legs as if to make a snow angel on the carpet floor.Colom's victory is the first win for Democrats in the seat in more than 40 years. And that candidate, who was elected for the final time in 1982, supported segregation.It is also the first time a black politician has held the seat since 1881. Mississippi's population is almost 40% black, which is a larger share of the electorate than any other state.Republicans have, following a ruling by the US Supreme Court overturning parts of the Voting Rights Act, made moves to reduce the number of majority-black districts, which many experts say weakens black voting power. It is partly due to this backdrop that Colom's victory resonated with many."All the stories that my father used to tell me about him growing up here in Jackson, and all the hardships and unjust treatment that he faced. And having experienced some of that myself, it's hard to put it into words what this moment means for us," Cedric Haynes said."All the stories that my father used to tell me about him growing up here in Jackson, and all the hardships and unjust treatment that he faced. And having experienced some of that myself, it's hard to put it into words what this moment means for us," Cedric Haynes said."Whoever thought this day would have come."People cheered, hugged, kissed and cried, celebrating the achievement."I think it is special. It is holy, and it something different," Charles Taylor, executive director of the NAACP's Mississippi branch, said.Taylor now sits in the same office that was once occupied by Medgar Evers, a black WWII veteran and civil rights activist who was killed by an assassin's bullet in Mississippi, in 1963, in part for his effort to register black Americans to vote.To win in the Magnolia State, Colom has not only had to overcome the state's racial history, but defy its political gravity. Mississippi has long been a Republican stronghold. Donald Trump won re-election to the presidency here by over 22 points, just two years go.In the early days of the midterm election season, which ultimately ended in Democrats flipping a record number of seats in Congress, not even the party's wildest ambitions included a Mississippi victory.Two days after election day, with a lead of only a few hundred votes, Colom said the national party had long given up on the state."I've been in Mississippi for 15 years," Colom told NBC News on 5 November. "Most of the time Democrats have conceded the state."He continued: "What you're saying is, I don't care enough about those voters."But Colom won anyways, despite having a roughly $2m campaign donation deficit compared to the Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, according to the most recent FEC records.The tide turned for Colom and Democrats, with help from massive grassroots campaigning and organising.The NAACP said it knocked on more than 150,000 doors across the state and made stops at over 2,500 churches in the lead-up to the election - compared to 70,000 doors and 500 churches in the last election. The NAACP is non-partisan and did not favour a candidate - but exit polls showed 91% of black voters in Mississippi backed Colom.About 300,000 more voters showed up to Mississippi's polls in 2026, compared to the last mid-term's in 2022.His victory against nearly impossible odds was also bolstered by a strong showing from young voters, corralled by organisations like Mississippi Votes who showed up on college campuses across the state to encourage voter registration.Arekia Bennett-Scott, executive director of Mississippi Votes, said over 600 students from Jackson State University, a local historically black college, voted this midterm election – trumping the figure of roughly 100 Jackson State students who voted during the last midterm.At his victory speech, on the grounds of the historically black university Tougaloo College on Wednesday evening, hundreds of supporters gathered, many holding signs that said: "Picked another Senator."A member of the Tougaloo Concert Choir sang the US National Anthem. Colom's two daughters, Gwendolyn and Brooklyn, aged 9 and 8, respectively, then led a recital of the Pledge of Allegiance, as hands were held over hearts.After Colom's wife, Nadia, took the stage, he emerged between a narrow opening in a thicket of supporters to address the public as senator-elect for the very first time.In his opening remarks, he cited Medgar Evers, the black veteran who was assassinated for trying to help black Americans register to vote."He had faith that Mississippi could make progress," Colom said."For months and months, I've been telling everybody, everywhere I go, that we're gonna win this election," he continued. "Every time I said it, I pointed out that people were going to give me too much credit for it because it's not something that I did, y'all. It's something that we did.""All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this."With additional reporting from Kyla Herrmannsen