Public officials, high school students and community members gathered on the courthouse lawn in Macon, Mississippi, the day before the 2026 midterm election to unveil a new historical marker honoring five African American men who represented their county in the state legislature during Reconstruction.
Following remarks by local officials, including District 42 Rep. Carl Mickens, District 32 Sen. Rod Hickman, Macon Mayor Freddie Poindexter, and Noxubee County Supervisor Bruce Brooks, the audience learned more about the trailblazing legislators through a dramatic monologue performed by Brooklyn Sanders, a Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science student from neighboring Lowndes County. Sanders, costumed in a blue dress with a hoop skirt, portrayed Alexenia Davis Foote, the daughter of Alexander Kelso Davis, who represented Noxubee County in the Legislature from 1870-1873 and served as the state’s first and only Black lieutenant governor. Sanders told the story of the county’s first Black legislators through the eyes of a daughter remembering her father and his colleagues.
Only a few days before, on Oct. 29, citizens in the nearby city of Starkville had celebrated their own historical marker recognizing “The First Black Legislators.” At Oktibbeha County’s Unity Park, across the street from the courthouse, District 43 Rep. Rob Roberson highlighted the courage of these men, who literally risked their lives to serve and lift up their people. District 41 Rep. Kabir Karriem, the current chairman of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, stressed the importance of the ongoing battle to protect voting rights. The program closed with a monologue delivered in costume by Starkville High School senior Kylin Ellis, who portrayed Rep. David Higgins as he talked about himself and his fellow legislators from Oktibbeha and Clay Counties.
These two marker unveiling programs were the first of many more that will be held in counties across the state over the coming year as part of the “Making Their Mark” project. The first of the project’s planned 22 historical markers was installed at the old courthouse in Meridian to honor legislators from Lauderdale and Clarke Counties, with a dedication program still to be announced. “Making Their Mark” is funded by a grant from Monument Lab and co-directed by myself, a Mississippi State University librarian, and Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science history teacher Chuck Yarborough.
Based on information and sources gathered on my website, “Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi,”, each historical marker was approved by its local county board of supervisors and then by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Sewah Studios, an Ohio-based manufacturer, is currently working through the large order. As the markers are finished and installed on their respective courthouse lawns, community members and students will continue to participate in unveiling programs like the ones held in Starkville and Macon.
The historical markers celebrate a revolutionary period in Mississippi history when African Americans represented the majority of the state’s population, and formerly enslaved men now had the right to vote and hold office. At a time when Republicans were labeled as “radicals” and Democrats as conservatives, Mississippi’s Republican leaders launched the state’s first public school system and even passed an anti-segregation civil rights law in 1873. At the height of Reconstruction in 1874, Black men composed almost half the state’s legislature and held the offices of lieutenant governor, secretary of state and speaker of the house, among others. The first two Black men to serve in the United States Senate, Hiram R. Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, were both sent by Mississippi after being elected by the state legislature.
White backlash was violent and decisive. Conservative white Democrats, through campaigns of terror and voter intimidation, took back the state legislature in 1875. They called it “Redemption,” and so did decades of state textbooks. In 1890, Mississippi adopted a new state constitution that established Jim Crow laws. Only two African American representatives remained by 1894. After that term, there would not be another Black man elected to the state legislature until Robert G. Clark in 1967. Even after that election, Clark was the only Black man in the Mississippi state legislature for almost ten years.
Until Nov. 3, 2026, discussions of Black political representation in Mississippi included the fact that Mississippi never elected another Black man to the United States Senate after Reconstruction.
Now, with Scott Colom’s victory over Cindy Hyde-Smith on Nov. 11, Mississippi has surprised and captivated the nation. For people unfamiliar with the state’s political history, the idea of Mississippi electing an African American man to the Senate is nothing short of miraculous. Indeed, considering Mississippi’s current demographics and the state’s highly restrictive voting laws (which, incidentally, led to the current fiasco over counting affidavit ballots), it is remarkable that Colom currently holds the lead and seems poised to be Mississippi’s next senator.
But Mississippi’s history, which includes the revolutionary multi-racial democracy of the early 1870s, is a stark warning and an important reminder to the nation as a whole that civil rights can be taken away. The Fourteenth Amendment itself, ratified as part of Reconstruction, was challenged earlier this year in the Supreme Court by the current presidential administration.
Just as important, however, is the reminder that the people can fight back in the voting booth.
With Colom’s victory, he will follow in the footsteps of the first two African American senators in the state and in the country. He will also make history as the first African American senator directly elected by the people of Mississippi, rather than by the state legislature.
And he will enter the Senate as historical markers go up around his home state to honor the Black legislators who paved the way.
To learn more about the “Making Their Mark” project and follow updates about marker installations and unveiling programs, visit https://much-ado.net/legislators/making-their-mark/.
This MFP Voices opinion essay reflects the personal opinion of its author(s). The column does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Free Press, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to voices@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints.
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