(CNN) — In Jackson, Mississippi, a crowd of supporters celebrated Scott Colom’s historic projected win in Mississippi’s Senate race.
Ahead of remarks from Colom, members of Tougaloo College concert choir sang a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner donning robes in the historic school’s red and blue colors. The choir then performed a song introduced by a presenter as “the Black national anthem.”
The cultural hymn, called “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” was originally written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson at the turn of the 20th century, according to the NAACP. It’s a song about freedom with religious references that over time has been sung during significant moments throughout history like the 1960s’ Civil Rights Movement, per the NAACP.
Colom’s projected victory makes him the first Black person elected to statewide office in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era. He’s also the first Mississippi Democrat to be elected in the chamber in more than four decades.
Scott Colom said his Senate campaign started with a prayer.
Paying homage to the historical figures who came before him — the first Black senator in the country, Hiram Revels, civil rights icons Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer — Colom said he had to have faith to keep campaigning when others didn’t believe in him.
He recalled his first town hall in Jackson where only 10 people showed up.
“You need faith, and I’ll tell you, throughout this campaign, there were many times where I had to have faith. There were times that I couldn’t get donors to answer the phone. They did not believe a moment like this was possible. But I kept the faith,” Colom said.
In celebrating his win, Colom was clear to point out, “it’s not something that I did, y’all. It’s something that we did. All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this.”
Colom vowed to work for everyone in Mississippi regardless of whether he won their vote.
