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[–] 27 points 1 day ago* (3 children)

Looks like they updated the feed since you posted: Colom is the first Black senator to ever be elected in Mississippi

To start in the more distant past, Colom will be Mississippi’s first Black senator since 1881, when Blanche Kelso Bruce, who was born into slavery, ended his single term during the post-civil war Reconstruction era.

But Bruce was elected to the US Senate not in a popular vote, but by Mississippi’s state legislature, in 1874. He then held that seat from 1875 to 1881.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 day ago* (2 children)

    But Bruce was elected to the US Senate not in a popular vote, but by Mississippi’s state legislature, in 1874. He then held that seat from 1875 to 1881.

    I meaaaaaan, that's just the normal way it was done prior to the Seventeenth Amendment.

    It's still an election; Bruce was still elected, and we still called them "elections". It's just an indirect election by the state legislature, not a direct democratic election. We still call them "papal elections" even though god knows the conclave doesn't consist of 1.4 billion Catholics.

    It's not a 1:1 comparison, but that doesn't make Colom "the first Black senator to ever be elected in Mississippi". I don't see where they updated the feed as you claim; it correctly reads: "Democrat Scott Colom to be first Black senator elected in Mississippi since 1874 after narrow win – US politics live".

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