‘Killing Our Vote’: GOP States Rush to Break up Black Districts After US Supreme Court Case
The hastily drawn map splits Memphis into three districts and could erase 4 to 6 majority-Black seats across the South, advocates said.
- On Thursday, Tennessee lawmakers advanced a redistricting map splitting Memphis, the state's last majority-Black district, into three white-majority Republican seats, effectively silencing the city's largest Black community.
- The Supreme Court's April 29 Louisiana vs. Callais ruling dismantled Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, allowing states to split minority-majority districts if lawmakers claim political rather than racial motivation.
- At least four other Southern states—Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina—are considering similar map changes before the midterms, which advocates warn could trigger the largest drop in Black representation since Reconstruction.
- Democratic State Rep. Justin Pearson led protests inside the Nashville State Capitol as the map advanced, denouncing the legislation as a racist attempt to eliminate Black political power in Tennessee.
- Republicans aim to strengthen their slim House majority before November's midterm elections, though Democrats seeking voting rights restoration face an unlikely path to federal legislation until at least 2029.
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Black leaders call for urgent action on voting rights - Los Angeles Wave Newspaper Group
By Edward Henderson Contributing Writer SACRAMENTO — Black elected officials, civil rights attorneys, and grassroots organizers from across California convened in a virtual conference on May 1 to sound the alarm following an April 29 U.S. Supreme Court decision they say has severely weakened a cornerstone of the Voting Rights Act — warning that the ruling poses a direct threat to minority voting power and representation. The discussion, moderate…
Representation at risk: The fragile progress of Black political power
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies argues that while the Voting Rights Act of 1965 dramatically expanded Black political representation in Congress, those gains remain fragile amid weakened federal protections and growing partisan gerrymandering. He warns that recent legal and political shifts threaten decades of progress and stresses that preserving equitable representation is essential to a
Ohio Capital Journal
‘Killing our vote’: GOP states rush to break up Black districts after US Supreme Court case
Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, speaks to a crowd of protesters on May 5, 2026, the first day of a special legislative session called by Republican Gov. Bill Lee to redraw Tennessee’s congressional districts. (Photo by Cassandra Stephenson/Tennessee Lookout)The day after the U.S. Supreme Court crippled the federal Voting Rights Act, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson addressed a virtual gathering for the group’s mem…
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