Jacquie here, Mike’s Outreach Director.
As a lifelong Mississippian, I know how often Mississippi is overlooked and undervalued. It gives me hope to see that our race to elect Mike Espy to the U.S. Senate is finally getting the national attention it deserves.
Today, it was the focus of New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow’s op-ed:
The answer, I know for a fact, is YES.
In 1986, Mike became the first Black congressman elected in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era, and after generations of disenfranchisement of Black Mississippians.
When the Civil War ended in 1865, Mississippi was a majority Black state. As Mr. Blow writes in the New York Times, “Perhaps no state at the time held the promise of true Black electoral power more than Mississippi.”
During Reconstruction, Mississippi’s majority Black population had real representation in government. One fourth of the state legislature was Black, and the delegation displayed its power when they succeeded in appointing the first Black senator in American history. Senator Hiram Revels was called, “The 15th Amendment in flesh and blood.”
But in response to growing Black political power, a group of politicians in Mississippi effectively ended Reconstruction. They codified the disenfranchisement of Black Mississippians. They brought forth Black Codes, Jim Crow, and years of rampant voter suppression, fraud, and violence.
The Mississippi State House wouldn’t see another Black representative until 1968, and Mississippi didn’t elect another Black representative to Congress until 1986 (Mike Espy). Mike was then re-elected three times before becoming the first Black U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
For too long, Mississippi has been held back in health care, in jobs, and in education. Too often, we are disrespected, wrongly overlooked, and counted out in elections.
Sometimes it feels like people are even afraid to say the word “Mississippi." I mean, just a few weeks ago, when a hurricane was moving toward us, our state was simply referred to as a “landmass.”
Like Fannie Lou Hamer once said, we’re “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
But we’re changing the narrative with our campaign. We’re building a broad coalition of support all across the state, prioritizing the issues that matter most, and getting out in the communities to hear directly from the people.
And now we’re just one point behind our far-right opponent, something the pundits never would have predicted at the start of our campaign. Like Charles M. Blow said, “We are in the homestretch, but Espy has a real chance.”
We just can’t do it alone, really. With only 33 days left until Election Day, will you stand with Mike Espy and help send him to the U.S. Senate by pitching in $10 or more today?
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Together, we can help Mike make history again and create a Mississippi we can all be proud of.
Thanks,
Jacquie Amos
Outreach Director
Espy for Senate
