The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, serves as Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute.

The Honorable Thompson has held public office since the age of 19 years, starting with Alderman of his home town Bolton, Mississippi, then Mayor of Bolton, and then Hinds County District Supervisor. In 1993, in a special election, he was elected to represent the Second Congressional District of Mississippi. 

The HonorableThompson has a long history of community involvement and political activism. He joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and helped to organize voter registration drives for African-Americans in the Mississippi Delta.

Presently serving his eleventh term as Congressman, he is the longest-serving African-American elected official in the state of Mississippi, In the House of Representatives, Congressman Thompson has been assigned to serve on the Agriculture, Budget and Small Business Committees. In the 109th Congress, he was elected to serve as the first Democratic Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. With the change in Leadership in the House of Representatives, Congressman Thompson now serves as the Ranking Member on the Committee on Homeland Security.