Cochran used his considerable influence, including serving as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to direct billions of dollars to Mississippi.
In a Mississippi death penalty case, the justices were skeptical of the way the state picked and dismissed black jurors and appeared ready not to uphold the conviction.
More than half the new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. are in Southern states, where the rates among gay and bisexual black men remain stubbornly high, despite the existence of medicine to stop the virus.
Revelations about Hyde-Smith in recent weeks revived memories of the state's dark history of racism and violence. She prevailed over Democrat Mike Espy and has to run again in 2020 for a full term.
The special election runoff in deep red Mississippi was expected to be a sleepy affair — a formality, even. Instead, the race has tightened as the GOP candidate stumbled over the state's racist past.
At a debate Tuesday night, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith apologized to anyone offended by her "public hanging" remark. Her African-American opponent Mike Espy said she reinforces stereotypes about the state.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, facing African-American opponent Mike Espy on Nov. 27, was caught on tape saying about a supporter, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."
A recent book recounts the brutal lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955. In it, the woman who accused the boy of assault admits she was lying. The FBI has reopened the murder investigation.
Martin Luther King Jr. chose Marks as a starting point for the economic justice fight because of the entrenched poverty he saw there. Today, poverty remains a challenge in Marks.