AI Image
Scott Colom Flips County Named for KKK Founder Nathan Bedford Forrest
Mississippi Free Press • • nation
Key Points:
- Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom has flipped Forrest County, historically Republican and named after KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest, leading incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith 54%-44% with 97% of votes counted.
- This shift marks a 29-point swing toward Democrats in a county Donald Trump won by 58%-40% in 2024, and Colom could become Mississippi's first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.
- Forrest County, home to majority-Black Hattiesburg and the University of Southern Mississippi, has a complex civil rights legacy, including past efforts to remove a Confederate monument and honoring slain civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer.
- The county played a significant role in the 1960s civil rights movement, with organizations fighting voter suppression and hosting Freedom Schools during the Freedom Summer of 1964.
- Some residents have recently advocated renaming Forrest County to distance it from its Confederate and KKK associations.
