Black legislators lead the resistance as Republicans rush to redraw maps after gutting of Voting Rights Act
“This is our moment in time to resist, to persist, to fight back,” Tennessee State Rep. Justin J. Pearson tells theGrio.
A week after the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Republican state legislatures in former slave states in the South have quickly moved to pass redrawn congressional maps targeting districts comprised of majority Black and brown communities.
While the outcome is almost inevitable in these states where Republicans hold strong majorities, Black Democratic state legislators aren’t taking the likely political defeats silently. Many are using their microphones and the power of resistance and organizing to, if not prevent, at the very least bring attention to what they say is President Donald Trump and Republicans’ deliberate effort to seize more power at the expense of what is fair and democratic, and more than 60 years of voting rights protections for Black Americans.
“It’s disturbing and disgusting to see how this administration and the white leadership here are trying to codify white supremacy and dilute Black political voting power because that’s what’s happening,” Tennessee State Rep. Justin J. Pearson tells theGrio. “I think none of us should make any mistake about what is going on. The attempt to remove Black representation and our ability to elect representatives of our choice is one of the most significant attacks on Black voter participation and Black voter representation since the end of Reconstruction.”
Pearson would be directly affected by the Tennessee General Assembly’s redistricting, which is already underway. The Republican majority is seeking to eliminate the 9th Congressional District, the only Democratic district in the state, based in Memphis, a majority-Black city. Pearson, who represents state District 86, is a candidate in the Democratic primary election for the 9th Congressional District, currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen.
The new map, unveiled on Wednesday, would split Memphis, a city that is more than 60% Black, into three districts, which critics note will dilute the ability of Black residents, staunch Democratic voters, to influence the outcome of elections–and, more importantly, have their policy and political interests represented in Congress.
The Supreme Court ruled on April 29 that, moving forward, claims of racial discrimination in map redistricting under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act must prove that race was intentionally used as the basis. The conservative majority said targeting Black voters is legally permissible if the reason is political. Critics say now Republicans have the green light to carve out majority-Black districts–as long as they say it’s political–simply because Black voters tend to vote for Democrats.
In response to the redistricting effort, Pearson joined other Democrats and residents in protest and introduced several bills to protect voting rights in Tennessee and beyond, including a resolution calling on Congress to codify the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore the protections gutted by the Supreme Court over the past decade. On Monday, the 31-year-old lawmaker led a 9-mile march with constituents to “Defend District 9.” On Wednesday, Pearson joined hundreds of protesters both inside and outside the State Capitol in Nashville as Republicans advanced the map through the legislature.
Pearson said resistance is demanded in this moment, telling theGrio, “America has never been a democracy in and of itself or by itself. It’s been because of pressure, persistence, and people who persevered through the trauma, the lynching, the violence, the degradation that we’ve experienced.”
He added, “This is our moment in time to resist, to persist, to fight back. And we have to realize we’re not in this just for this week, or these months, we’re in this for a lifetime in order that we might leave this country in a different place than we’re currently experiencing it and have inherited it.”
In Florida, Republicans passed a new congressional map on Monday that redraws districts held by Black members of Congress, although some remain Democratic leaning.
Ahead of a vote on the map in the House of Representatives, Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, used a bullhorn to call out her Republican colleagues on the House floor during legislative proceedings.
“This is a violation of the Constitution,” she shouted. “I will not allow you to destroy our democracy!”
After the House floor demonstration, Nixon explained that she had to “disrupt” the proceedings because the new map was illegal under Florida’s state constitution and “diminished representation” for Black, Latino, and Jewish communities in Florida.
“This is a slap in the face to voters,” said Nixon. “Republicans are only doing this so they can look out for Donald Trump and allow him to have unfettered power.”
Though Democrats are used to being drowned out by the Republican majorities in Florida, Nixon urged, “We have to do something different!”
Florida State Senator Shevrin Jones turned to the tactic of shaming Republicans. During a Senate committee hearing on Florida’s new map, the lawmaker reminded his Republican colleagues that Florida voters already voted in 2010 to ban political gerrymandering in the state.
“Shame on us for listening to Washington, D.C. before you listen to the 24 million people in this state,” said Jones.
The Florida senator told theGrio, “Black Floridians should be mad as hell, but motivated at the same time. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Districts Amendments passed by voters in 2010 were not suggestions; they were mandates.” He continued, “When communities that have historically fought for representation suddenly find their voting strength weakened, people have every right to ask whether this is racial gerrymandering wrapped in politics.”
Jones added, “And if some folks want a civil rights era fight over voting rights and representation, I think they’ve met their match, because going backward is not an option.”
While some Democrats are engaging in civil disobedience in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights era, others are adopting another tactic of Dr. King’s by appealing to their morals.
Back in Tennessee, State Senator London Lamar sought to reach the consciences of her Republican colleagues.
“I need you to know this will be one of the most racist actions taken in the…modern history of this legislature,” Lamar said on the Senate floor as they moved to eliminate the only seat of power for Black voters in Memphis. “I know some of you sitting in this body actually don’t agree with this. I know you don’t. But there’s an opportunity for you to have some courage…Y’all know this is wrong. You know it. You know it.”
Senator London added, “I’m calling on the soul of you to do the right thing. Let’s not carve out Memphis because you can’t fairly win in a ballot box or to favor one member in this body’s path to Congress. If you do this, this is racist, and it’s intent…Let’s call it what it is.”
Resistance from Black legislators in the South will most likely continue as other states are advancing gerrymandered maps targeting majority-Black districts, including Alabama, the birthplace of the Voting Rights Act, and Louisiana, where the Voting Rights Act case was decided by the Supreme Court last week.
Rep. Pearson, who noted that Memphis was a “pillar of the civil rights movement and civil rights struggle,” said the resistance must go on and urged Democrats to invest in the South.
“We can never lose hope. This is a moment, particularly in the South, where we have to start investing in our infrastructure for the short term, the medium term, and the long term,” he told theGrio. “As long as Democrats participate in U.S. races, gubernatorial races, we might be able to change the way that the country is functioning and operating. And so I’m not giving up on us.”