In a 2018 Mississippi senate election campaign, Republican candidate Cindy Hyde Smith made the shockingly morally transgressive comment that "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be in the front row." This was regarding a campaign supporter:
She was not disqualified from the campaign.
Mississippi has the highest number of hangings of any state in US history, ending in 1968.
She went on to win that race. And another in 2020.
In 2026, with the victory speech by her opponent yesterday, she lost. A black man, district attorney Scott Colom, won. He gave his victory speech 8 years after, to the day, this woman engaged in that most graphic of moral betrayals:
We join in the celebration here with an episode on GIS for Equity and Social Justice. It is with Greg Babinski. He founded GIS Management Consulting Services +. He runs a workshop called GIS for Equity and Social Justice next week Wednesday 11/19/2026. I encourage you to sign up. You may also wish to join a couple of related LinkedIn groups.
We went on a truly inspiring tour of the amazing potential to use geospatial for equity and social justice ends. Greg really started at the beginning, talking us through the incredible exploits of a pioneer - William Bunge with his Detroit Geographical Expedition. Which, coincidentally, Bill founded the same year as Mississippi’s last public hanging.
I was inspired enough to start my own Atlanta Geographical Expedition. If you are in Atlanta, join the meetup.
