“My Dad Was Watching”

James Forman Jr. watched Scott Colom claim victory as Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since 1881 — and he couldn’t stop thinking of his own father. That would be the late civil rights leader James Forman. James Forman Sr. made history in Mississsippi 62 summers ago by helping organize civil rights workers who risked (and in some cases lost) their lives to restore Black Americans’ right to vote and participate in democracy. Colom’s victory was a culmination of that work. “I have been on cloud nine” since Colom’s victory was called Wednesday night, Forman, a Yale law professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, said Thursday, hours after the announcement of Colom’s victory. “I grew up with stories of what Mississippi life was like for” his father, Forman said during a conversation on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” The stories included the dirt his father ate as a young boy growing up in Mississippi, along with the racial oppression and violence he witnessed.

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