Black voting rights advocates are scrambling to respond to rapidly gerrymandered congressional maps that dilute Black political power across the South, following a Supreme Court decision that critics say has revived Jim Crow-era tactics.
Supreme Court Ruling Sparks Race to Redraw Maps
The Supreme Court's recent ruling in Louisiana v Callais gutted critical protections in the Voting Rights Act against racial discrimination, opening the door for a new wave of racial gerrymandering. Davante Lewis, a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, said the court “gave them a defibrillator to the heart of Jim Crow.”
Voting rights advocates are now racing to respond to the speed of changes across the South, a region at the heart of the civil rights movement. “We’re prepared to make noise,” Lewis told reporters Friday.
Tennessee Leads the Charge
Just one week after the Supreme Court’s decision, Tennessee on Thursday became the first Southern state to pass a new redistricting map that eliminates a majority-Black district. The hastily drawn map splits Memphis—a city that is more than 60 percent Black—into three separate districts, diluting Black voters’ political power across white Republican-leaning areas. The district had existed for over 100 years, since 1923.
“This was not the will of the people,” said Civic Tennessee’s Matia Powell. “It wasn’t the people who called the governor for a special session. It was the president.”
Widespread Southern Efforts to Dilute Black Power
Tennessee is not alone. Across the South, Republican-led states are pushing maps that eliminate majority-Black districts, which overwhelmingly vote Democratic. In Virginia, the state supreme court tossed out Democrats’ redistricting plan. In Florida, lawsuits challenge a newly drawn partisan gerrymander despite a state constitutional ban. South Carolina Republicans are moving to strike down the state’s only Black-majority district, and Alabama officials want to reinstate a map previously rejected by the Supreme Court for illegally diluting Black voting power.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act bans racially discriminatory voting rules, but the Supreme Court’s ruling allows partisan gerrymandering. “The Supreme Court says as long as you’re doing it for ‘partisan’ reasons, it’s legal,” Lewis said.
Historical Pattern and Advocacy Response
Anneshia Hardy, director of Alabama Values, noted that this is part of a historical pattern. “Every time Black communities get close to political power, we see this shift. The rules are recalibrated,” she said. Hardy traced the latest redistricting race to the Southern Strategy after the Voting Rights Act’s passage in 1965, when Republicans “weaponized” racial resentment. “It has not disappeared. It has evolved,” she added.
Amir Badat, a voting rights attorney with Fair Fight Action, said the new maps will “rob the political power of Black people in the South.”
Political Lynching and Resistance
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, running for Congress to represent Memphis, called the rapidly adopted map a “political lynching” that sets the state back 150 years. “The authoritarianism that has taken over Tennessee and other state houses across our country not only is a threat to democracy, it drains resources that are better used to improve the quality of life for marginalized communities,” he said. “But we are not powerless.”
The fast pace of changes has thrown off advocates, but they remain determined. “History has receipts,” Hardy said.
