Thompson, Bennie, 1948-

<p>Born in a state with a unique history of racial inequality, Congressman Bennie G. Thompson draws inspiration from the legacies of Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry and Henry Kirksey. The Bolton, Mississippi native considers it an honor to walk the path Mississippi civil rights icons paved decades ago.</p>

<p>Serving his 13th term in the United States House of Representatives, Thompson represents Mississippi’s Second Congressional District where he has spent his entire life fighting to improve the lives of all people.</p>

<p>Congressman Bennie G. Thompson is the longest-serving African-American elected official in the State of Mississippi and the lone Democrat in the Mississippi Congressional Delegation.</p>

<p>He began his grassroots political activism being a civil rights champion through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while a student at Tougaloo College – a private historically black college in Jackson, Mississippi. He organized voter registration drives for African-Americans throughout the Mississippi Delta on behalf of the organization before graduating and following in the footsteps of his mother by becoming a school teacher. During his tenure educating the youth of Mississippi, a fire inside of Thompson was ignited pushing him to be a voice to the voiceless through elected office.</p>

THOMPSON, Bennie, a Representative from Mississippi; born in Bolton, Hinds County, Miss., January 28, 1948; B.A., Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Miss., 1968; M.S., Jackson State University, Jackson, Miss., 1972; teacher; member of the Bolton, Miss., board of aldermen, 1969-1973; Mayor of Bolton, Miss., 1973-1979; member of the Hinds County, Miss., board of supervisors, 1980-1993; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Third Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Representative Alphonso Michael (Mike) Espy, and reelected to the fourteen succeeding Congresses (April 13, 1993-present); chair, Committee on Homeland Security (One Hundred Tenth, One Hundred Eleventh, One Hundred Sixteenth, and One Hundred Seventeenth Congresses).

<p>Bennie Gordon Thompson (born January 28, 1948) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Mississippi's 2nd congressional district since 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security since 2019, previously holding the position from 2007 to 2011.</p>

<p>The district includes most of Jackson and is the only majority-black district in the state. It is approximately 275 miles (443 km) long, 180 miles (290 km) wide, and borders the Mississippi River. The Mississippi Delta comprises the vast majority of the 2nd congressional district. Thompson was both the first Democrat and the first African American to chair the House Homeland Security Committee (2007–2011). He is the dean of Mississippi's congressional delegation. Since 2011, Thompson has been the only Democrat in Mississippi's congressional delegation.</p>