Mississippi blue(s)

The last time the Deep South state started a Black senator was in 1875, during “Reconstruction,” a roughly twenty-year period when the US federal government sought to support the integration and equality of Southern Black people after the Civil War. Mississippi actually sent two Black men to the Senate during that time: Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce. But by the 1890s, flagging federal attention created room for a backlash among Southern whites, who imposed Jim Crow segregation laws that would last until the 1960s. By defeating Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, Colom will be not only the state’s first Black senator since the 19th century, but also its first Democrat to win a Senate race since the 1980s.