Top story of the Year No. 2:
Lott loses Senate leadership post

By By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
Jan. 1, 2003
In a matter of days last month, the political career of one of Mississippi's most powerful elected officials took a nose dive and didn't stop until he lost his national leadership post.
U.S. Sen. Trent Lott resigned Dec. 20 as Senate majority leader about two weeks after he made comments some people considered racist at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party.
Lott will stay in the Senate. But his resignation pushed him out of the national GOP leadership, dealing a blow to his political clout and Mississippi's influence at the U.S. Capitol.
The senator's problems began the night of Dec. 5 at a birthday party for Thurmond.
Lott told Thurmond and the birthday party crowd that the nation would have been better off if the then-segregationist Thurmond had won his campaign for presidency in 1948.
Those comments created a furor that didn't end until Lott resigned his leadership post. Lott tried to save himself and his job, repeatedly apologizing and even appearing on Black Entertainment Television.
Nothing worked. While black and white Mississippi Republicans defended Lott and said he wasn't a racist, other leaders in the state and across the country were not impressed.
Eugene Bryant, executive director of Mississippi NAACP, said Lott's comments at Thurmond's party were a slap in the face to black Americans. Bryant said Lott's apologies served no purpose.
State and local Republicans had a different take. State Rep. Greg Snowden, R-Meridian, said he thought Lott's multiple apologies were enough and that he can still be an effective senator.