The Mississippi That Made Scott Colom
His Senate victory is the result of decades of work across generations.
Scott Colom, the first Black U.S. senator elected by Mississippians, traces his roots in the state back seven generations to when the nation was built on the exploitation of enslaved Black people. He ran a campaign emphasizing that "Mississippi matters," doubting whether a Black man and a Democrat could win the seat. With one of the most expensive election cycles in U.S. history, his campaign funds were minimal compared to Democrats in other battleground races.
Colom clinched the victory on Veterans Day, crediting the state's civil-rights pioneers and local individuals who work without recognition for upholding the "Mississippi faith tradition" of hope, particularly during dark times.
Scott's late stepfather, Obbie Riley, was a five-term Democratic county supervisor who fought the uphill battle for decades without witnessing its outcome. The "faith tradition" Colom spoke about encompasses both prayer and remembrance of the generations of bloodshed in Mississippi, where Black voting rights were reclaimed by those who could only dream of Scott's achievement: turning his home state blue.
Colom was reared by his now-retired judge mother, Dorothy Colom, the first Black person elected to her region's chancery court, and his attorney father, Wilbur Colom, who was once a Republican. He studied law at the University of Wisconsin and returned to Columbus, where he became the youngest and first African American justice-court judge in Lowndes County in 2011, followed by Columbus's first African American city prosecutor in 2013. His bold move included running for district attorney in his early 30s.
Columbus, a college town with the state's women's university and situated in the Golden Triangle region, is considered a natural breeding ground for a Democratic U.S. senator. During his 2015 campaign for district attorney, Scott unseated a 27-year incumbent who'd defended false convictions, instituting reforms such as restorative justice and counseling for gun-violence survivors. In 2020, Mississippi's attorney general dropped a police-shooting case Colom had transferred, leading to public outcry and regret.
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