Scott Calum's historic victory in Mississippi marks a political milestone in a state central to the struggle for civil rights and voting rights in America.

To help us understand the significance of this moment, we're joined by Brian Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative.

Brian, welcome back to the News Hour.

My pleasure to be with you.

Scott Calum's election is historic regardless of where one stands on his politics.

We should remind folks that Mississippi is where Medgar Evers fought and died, where Fannie Lou Hamer challenged the political establishment, where James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner were murdered while trying to register black voters.

How do you connect Scott Calum's victory to the sacrifices of the people who helped make this moment possible?

Well, there's no state in America that has more violently resisted full political participation by black people than the state of Mississippi.

The people you identified along with so many others, Vernon Dahmer, Herbert Lee, Lamar Smith, all of these people had to lose their lives in the effort to create greater political participation.

And so I think this is really an extraordinary moment in the history of this country.

People don't realize that Mississippi was a majority black state for much of its history.

From 1860 until 1940, there were more black people in Mississippi than white people.

The only reason why we haven't had dozens of black senators from Mississippi is because of violent voter suppression and abusive resistance to the rule of law.

In 1940, became a majority white state in part because our government tolerated decades of terror, violence, and lynching that drove hundreds of thousands of black people from the state.

So now for Scott Calum to win when it is no longer a majority black state, to win by not being about this history, but inviting others to challenge the kind of bigotry that is made Mississippi uh such a dangerous place for black politicians.

I think it's really remarkable and I think it uh inspires me and others in this region to believe that the spirit of the civil rights movement, which really changed America that decade between 55 and 65 is a decade that resulted in our country for the first time becoming a more functional democracy.

And I think that spirit has been awakened in Mississippi and many parts across the South and it's really energizing to see.

And fast forward to the present moment after the Supreme Court gutted key protections in the Voting Rights Act, Mississippi saw new battles over voting restrictions and redistricting, gerrymandering.

At the same time though, you had organizers who were working to mobilize voters and to expand political participation.

What does that suggest about the power of grassroots organizing to overcome barriers, intentional barriers to the ballot?

I think what happened this summer was a wake-up call to many African Americans and to many people who just believe in democracy that the court would gut the single piece of legislation, which was the crowning achievement of the Voting Rights Act, that has actually facilitated meaningful political participation for the first time in our nation's history; that they would gut that act and then that states would immediately exploit that, uh, states like Tennessee and Alabama, to undermine black political participation.

I think it it it energized black people all over the South.

And from Texas to Georgia to South Carolina to Alabama where figures won that district even after it had been gerrymandered to produce a white Republican victory to Mississippi, I think this is a new moment in American politics.

I think we're going to see engagement by black voters, by voters who have been historically disfavored in this country because they now know that they have to fight for their place in this country.

And I think Scott's win in Mississippi, and the win in Texas, win in Georgia, and the win in Alabama, and the win in South Carolina is evidence that this is going to be a new moment in the politics of America.

And I hope it's a moment that transforms not just this region, but this country, so that we stop using the power of the law to disfavor and exclude those voices that have long been under acknowledged and under recognized.

I want to press on that a bit because I'm sure there are people who will say that there can be a temptation to read too much into any one victory, even one as historic as this.

When you look at Mississippi today, when you look at the Deep South, what gives you hope that this election can represent something more than a single political breakthrough?

Hope that this could represent something more beyond politics?

Well, I think the fact that, you know, uh Scott Colom won this race, uh not just with the Black vote, there aren't enough Black voters for him to have won a statewide race.

He persuaded a much higher percentage of white voters to vote for him uh in a moment when they had been told that they should avoid things that are echoes of our history of civil rights activism and racial injustice.

Uh the same thing happened in Georgia, the same thing happened in South Carolina, the same thing happened in Texas.

And I think that's what is inspiring.

I think every American should be proud of what the civil rights movement did for this country, that it allowed us to become this more perfect unit.

That should make all of us proud.

And when we have people who are trying to undermine that progress, who are trying to return us to the politics of division and racial exclusion that's so defined so many parts of this country for too long, I think you're going to see lots of people saying, "No, we don't want that."

We do not want to go back to that kind of uh bigoted uh use of power.

And so that's what gives me hope is that we are we people weren't Black people weren't alone in the critical moments of the civil rights moment, uh but we're also not alone now.

And I think the ally community has gotten even bigger, it's gotten more informed, it's more knowledgeable, and I think it's more prepared to stand with anyone who's being politically disfavored because of their race or their ethnicity or their color or their religion.

I think that era has to be rejected, and I think there are a lot of people in this region that are prepared to to reject that era, black and white and brown from all different kinds of faiths.

Brian Stevenson is founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative.

Always a pleasure to speak with you.

Thanks for making time.

Thank you.

Great to speak with you, too.

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