Votes in the Mississippi Senate race are still being counted. Currently, Democrat Scott Colom is roughly 2,500 votes ahead of the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith.Elise Catrion Gregg, community engagement reporter for the Gulf States Newsroom, explains why it’s taking so long to count the votes, and when we might have a winner declared.
While we wait for the final tallies from Mississippi, we wanted to zoom in on the state’s first Black senator, Hiram Revels. In 1870, the Mississippi legislature elected him to fill one of the state’s two Senate seats left vacant after the Civil War, making him the first Black senator in the United States. Revels also served as a minister, Union Army chaplain and organizer, and college president. Another Black Senator, Blanche K. Bruce, followed in his footsteps and was elected in 1875.
More than 150 years later, his great-great-great-grandson Bruce Revels III has written a historical fiction novel about Hiram Revels. The 18-year-old college freshman at the University at Buffalo joins us now for more on his retelling, and what it means to him and his family to watch Mississippi on the verge of electing another Black Senator all these years later.
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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber. We receive production and technical support from Garrett Pittman, Adam Vos and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.
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