Georgia's likely new senators reminiscent of Black, Jewish 'coalition that defined the civil rights movement'

Kathryn Krawczyk

Democrat Raphael Warnock has been projected the winner in Georgia's runoff Senate race, making him the first Black man to ever represent the state in the Senate. Democrat Jon Ossoff is meanwhile on the way to a win, and is set to become the first Jewish senator from the state.

Those wins aren't just historic, MSNBC's Joy Reid noted Wednesday. They also "resemble the coalition that defined the civil rights movement," she tweeted, recalling how Black and Jewish people partnered in the 1960s to fight white supremacy.

The Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer, who is Black and Jewish, similarly called the likely wins "evocative of the old civil rights alliance" — and something he'd like to share with both his grandmothers.

And Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime civil rights activist himself, said "the idea that a Black and a Jew would win in Georgia show this country is moving a lot further than Donald Trump thought."

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