When Scott Colom is sworn into the U.S. Senate in January, he will not be the first Black senator from Mississippi to make history. Colom, a Democrat, defeated Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. He will be the first Black senator from Mississippi in nearly 150 years and the first chosen by voters rather than state lawmakers. The previous Black senators from Mississippi were Hiram Rhodes Revels and Blanche Kelso Bruce. Revels was the first African American to serve in Congress, taking office in 1870. Bruce was the first to serve a full term, starting in 1875. Both were Republicans in the Reconstruction period that followed the Civil War.