Juneteenth Feature: Rep. Bennie Thompson, “An Avid Hunter,” Closes In On The Biggest Target of All

NOTE: the Jan. 6 committee has announced two more dates and times for hearings:

> Tuesday, June 21: 10 a.m. Pacific

> Thursday, June 23: noon Pacific

Now York Times: ‘He Took Jan. 6 Personally’

Representative Bennie G. Thompson, chairman of the committee investigating the attack on the Capitol, has spent his career fighting to protect the right to vote.

Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi has spent nearly 30 years on Capitol Hill, but his leadership of the Jan. 6 committee represents his most significant turn in the national spotlight. 

BOLTON, Miss.— It was here, in this majority-Black town of 441 people, that Representative Bennie G. Thompson attended a segregated junior high school. It was where his father spent a lifetime working as a mechanic and paying taxes, but never enjoying the right to vote. And it was where the future congressman, in the early 1970s, campaigned for mayor while packing a gun, after receiving threats from white people loath to give up their political power.

So it came as little surprise, to those who know Mr. Thompson well, that he was quick to mention Bolton, Miss., after gaveling to order the first hearing of the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“I’m from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching,” said Mr. Thompson, the committee chair. “I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, 2021.”

One thought on “Juneteenth Feature: Rep. Bennie Thompson, “An Avid Hunter,” Closes In On The Biggest Target of All”

  1. Excellent reporting on Bennie Thompson’s record, but where oh where was the EDITOR? Could hardly make it through so many repeated or slightly changed paragraphs with author credits strewn throughout. What a pity — it needs to be heard up front! Please re-post in concise form!

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