When Scott Colom takes the oath of office for the U.S. Senate in January, he will not be the first Black senator from Mississippi to make history. But he will be the first in nearly 150 years and the first chosen by voters rather than state lawmakers.
Colom, a Democrat, was declared the winner Wednesday over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. His victory marked a major shift in a state with the nation's largest proportional share of Black people but where white conservatives have largely held political power for decades.
“There have been a lot of elections wherein Black folks didn’t really seem like they had a chance. If you look at the demographics of Mississippi, it’s one of those places where, demographically, it shouldn’t be that way. It’s a large Black population,” said Justin Hansford, director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University. “It’s really radical for a place like Mississippi to say we want to go in a direction that is different from where we’ve been for the last 150 years."
Here are some things to know about the two previous Black senators from Mississippi, Hiram Rhodes Revels and Blanche Kelso Bruce.
Revels became the first African American to serve in either chamber of Congress when he took his Senate seat on Feb. 25, 1870.
Born to free parents in North Carolina in September 1827, he traveled throughout the country as an adult doing religious work and educating other Black people, according to biographies on National Park Service and U.S. Senate websites. After the Civil War, he settled in Natchez, Mississippi, where he served as presiding elder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Revels was elected as a Natchez alderman in 1868 and was one of 35 Black men elected to the state legislature the next year. Mississippi's U.S. Senate seats had been vacant since the state seceded from the Union in January 1861. Revels was selected by his fellow state legislators to fill one of the seats, and a white man was chosen for the other.
“An opportunity of electing a Republican to the United States Senate, to fill an unexpired term, occurred, and the colored members, after consulting together on the subject, agreed to give their influence and votes for one of their own race for that position, as it would in their judgement be a weakening blow against color line prejudice," Revels later recalled, according to a U.S. Senate website.
Revels was seated two days after Mississippi was readmitted to the Union and served just over a year, until March 3, 1871, when his term ended.
The Mississippi legislature chose Bruce to be the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. He was seated in 1875 and became the first Black man to preside over the Senate in 1879. Born into slavery in 1841 — his father was a white man who owned his mother — Bruce was the only formerly enslaved person to serve in the U.S. Senate, according to the Senate and National Park Service websites.
Bruce was born in Virginia and his father moved his plantation operation to Mississippi, where Bruce began picking cotton at age 8. He escaped to Kansas early in the Civil War, established a school for Black children in Missouri in 1864 and attended Oberlin College in Ohio for two years before a lack of funds caused him to withdraw.
He returned to Mississippi, where he became a wealthy businessman and landowner and held several positions in local government before he was elected to the U.S. Senate by state lawmakers. He served in the Senate from 1875 to 1881.
Reconstruction, the 12-year period after the Civil War from 1865 to 1877, was when the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were adopted, abolishing slavery, establishing birthright citizenship and prohibiting denial of the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
The Republican Party was the party of President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, declaring all enslaved people in rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”
A total of 17 Black men served in the U.S. Congress during Reconstruction, 15 in the House of Representatives and Revels and Bruce in the Senate. The Senate wouldn't have another Black member until 1967, when Sen. Edward Brooke of Massachusetts took office as the first Black person to be popularly elected to that body.
Nicole Austin-Hillery, president and CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, said the election of a Black senator in Mississippi at this moment “hearkens back to what our democracy is about — it is about ensuring equal justice for all and that everyone has a voice.”
“Connecting the historical context of Mr. Colom’s win to the fact that there had not been that level of representation in that particular state for almost 150 years really underscores that this moment is showing us that this is an elevation of power and voice for people that is really a true example of equity,” she said.
Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom attends an election event in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
This photo combo shows from left, Hiram Revels and Blanche Kelso Bruce. (Library of Congress via AP)
An Israeli airstrike hit one of the main hospitals still operating in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing six people and injuring at least 28 more.
In Iran, a body of clerics said it is necessary to consider withdrawing the country from a treaty meant to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Thursday. Read our full coverage here.
An Israeli airstrike hit one of the main hospitals still operating in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing six people and wounding 28 others.
The Israeli military said the strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza targeted an unidentified Hamas commander and other militants, without providing evidence. Gaza’s Health Ministry said the victims included a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy.
The hospital victims were among 10 Palestinians killed Thursday in four strikes that the Israeli military claimed targeted militants. Israel’s strikes on Gaza have continued despite a ceasefire deal with Hamas last year.
U.S. President Donald Trump in a social media post Thursday dismissed the idea of diplomacy with Tehran and said he wants Vice President JD Vance to focus on rooting out fraud in federal government programs instead.
The vice president was the face of an earlier effort to strike a deal with Iran that ultimately collapsed. His office didn't comment Thursday.
Meanwhile Iran's top negotiator claimed the U.S. asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to facilitate negotiations between the two nations. The White House did not directly respond to the claim.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which is a clerical body responsible for overseeing Iran’s supreme leader, said Thursday that considering withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is an “unavoidable necessity,” state TV reported.
Iran has enriched uranium to near weapons-grade levels, but insists its program is only for civilian purposes. The late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared nuclear weapons forbidden under Islam.
Yossi Dagan, a prominent Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank, was denied permission to enter France last week as he flew to Charles de Gaulle International Airport.
France’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Dagan, who heads one of six Israeli regional councils in the West Bank, was banned "due to his active role in implementing Israel's settlement policy."
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the decision by France “completely unacceptable."
France was one of several European countries this year to step up restrictions on Israeli settlers and settlements in the West Bank, which are viewed as illegal and a hindrance to peace talks.
In a separate development, Israel’s foreign minister and interior minister, Gideon Saar, said Thursday that French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has been barred from Israel for his vocal support of Gaza.
The United Kingdom, Qatar and Jordan led a coalition of more than 50 countries and organizations on Thursday calling on Israel to provide immediate entry of critical items for shelter, fuel, water, sanitation and health to Gaza.
The group said too many people in Gaza “risk exposure to hypothermia, respiratory infections, waterborne diseases and other preventable illnesses” with winter's arrival.
The statement echoed recent criticism by the Board of Peace and U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.
The British military reported at least two tankers were struck by projectiles in recent days while traversing contested waters near Iran.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center, which monitors maritime safety, said the oil tanker Dominica Prosperity was struck Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz, northwest of Ras al-Khaimah. The agency reported the crew evacuated safely and no casualties were reported.
In another incident from Tuesday, the UKMTO said an unnamed tanker was struck by a projectile in the Persian Gulf. Multiple casualties were taken ashore for medical assistance while the remaining crew was safe and accounted for, the agency said.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said Thursday that they intercepted and destroyed a drone over Riyadh and two others in the country's eastern region.
Meanwhile the Houthis, without providing evidence, claimed they launched a drone targeting Aramco facilities in Riyadh. The state-owned oil company has not replied to requests for comment.
A highway crash involving several vehicles killed 14 people and injured 30 others on Thursday, the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Interior said.
The accident happened before midnight on Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Road at the entrance to the Emirate of Fujairah.
The ministry, citing local police, said a driver lost control of their truck and slammed into another vehicle, causing the truck to overturn and strike a number of other vehicles. The truck caught fire, and the blaze spread to other damaged vehicles.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
People inspect damage to Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners attend the funeral of Khalid Abu Anza, 53, who was killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
People walk at Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike overnight in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
