The Day Old Dixie Died
The Day Old Dixie Died Historic change in Mississippi Dan Rather and Team Steady Nov 12 Eight days after one of the most momentous midterm elections in American history, a young Black attorney dismantled one of the most stalwart Republican strongholds in the country. On Wednesday night, the race for Mississippi’s U.S. Senate seat was finally called for Democrat Scott Colom. Mississippi’s racial divisions have long defined the state. It has only been six years since the legislature retired its 125-year-old flag, emblazoned with the Confederate battle cross. Colom becomes the state’s first Black senator since 1881, and the very first to be elected in a direct vote by the people. The state’s two Reconstruction-era senators were selected by the legislature. In a poetic twist of political irony, his opponent, incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, blocked his 2022 nomination to the federal bench. Colom said he likely would not have left a judgeship to run for the Senate. Many things had to align...
