A week after the conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling, former Confederate states ruled by majority-Republican state legislatures didn’t waste any time targeting their majority-Black districts — weakening Black political power and representation.
In Louisiana v. Callais, the Court changed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) to require proof of discriminatory intent, even though Congress rejected that standard in 1982 when it amended the law to address discriminatory effects.
Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent warned that the ruling would protect almost any voting plan a state calls partisan.
Tennessee’s Republican House Speaker confirmed this right away, saying states could now redistrict “color-blind.” Its majority-Republican House and Senate quickly showed what that means in practice. Meanwhile, the federal supreme court has taken similar actions three times in the past twelve years.
The Court Weakened the Law. Congress Failed to Respond.
In 2013, Shelby County v. Holder struck down the preclearance rule that required states with histories of discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing voting laws. Just hours later, Texas said it would implement a voter ID law that had been blocked. Congress was expected to respond; it did not.
In 2021, Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee further limited Section 2. Congress did not act then either. Now, the law has lost its main protections three times, and each time, Congress has promised to pass only one bill, even as we face an onslaught.
A Coordinated Push to Dilute Black Political Power
Within a week after the Louisiana v. Callais decision, Tennessee Republicans approved a new congressional map that split up Memphis’s majority-Black district and signed it into law that same day.
Louisiana has paused its congressional primaries to create a new map that removes its second majority-Black district. Louisiana Republicans also drew district lines to protect the House member on the Appropriations Committee.
Alabama is in special session, where its House Speaker publicly called on the Supreme Court to “overturn Amendment 14,” the constitutional guarantee of equal protection ratified after the Civil War to make Black Americans citizens. This is the same legislature that a court found had engaged in intentional racial discrimination in drawing its voting maps. On May 11, the Supreme Court answered, allowing Alabama to eliminate the congressional seat held by Congressman Shomari Figures, reverting to a map with only one majority-Black district. No explanation was offered.
South Carolina might eliminate the seat held by Congressman Jim Clyburn. Mississippi has set redistricting for May 20. Donald Trump is urging GOP-led states to redraw their maps, even if it delays elections. Callais didn’t start this conflict; it simply cleared the last legal barrier.
In South Carolina, removing Black voters through gerrymandering means communities lose arepresentative who supports Medicaid expansion and broadband access.
As protestors filled the halls and Democrats called it a return to Jim Crow, Tennessee’s Republican House approved the map. Memphis’s majority-Black district was divided into three districts that reach far into rural Republican areas. State Representative Justin Pearson described it as “a political lynching that violated the rights of every Tennessean” and a direct attack on Black political power.
Memphis Democrat Senator London Lamar pointed out the contradiction: you cannot break up a majority-Black city’s voting power and then “tell us race has nothing to do with it.”
South of Tennessee, Mississippi will hold its redistricting session at the Old Capitol, where white supremacist lawmakers passed the 1890 Constitution that took away Black citizens’ voting rights through poll taxes.
The ghosts of the racist past are not just lingering; they are actively shaping current decisions.
The Congressional Black Caucus Faces a Historic Threat
Black Voters Matter and Fair Fight Action estimate that up to 30% of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), or about 13 to 16 members, could be at risk because of redistricting. At the state level, the number of majority-Black or Hispanic legislative districts could fall from 342 to 202.
CBC Chair Yvette Clarke said, “This will be the first time in my life where representation in Black communities is being totally undermined.”
The CBC is urging an immediate vote on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would bring back the effects-based standard the Court removed. Passing it is essential.
However, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act only offers protection; it does not address the root cause. It does not restore the federal resources that were redirected from majority-Black districts when those communities lost their say in important budgets; it does not restore the right to vote for millions of disenfranchised Black voters; it does not compensate Black voters for centuries of political violence.
The Court has shown three times that this protection can be knifed through. With up to 30% of the CBC at risk, the Caucus cannot rely on just one defensive measure. Every possible solution must be considered.
The Voting Rights Act Was Never Meant to Repair the Damage
The Voting Rights Act was always meant to be protective. It did not make up for what Black communities had already lost—generations of stolen representation, domestic terrorism like the 1898 white supremacist coup in Wilmington, North Carolina, centuries of being denied the vote, and poll taxes that removed Black voters from the rolls for generations.
The VRA helped improve Black economic conditions, but when Shelby weakened it, those gains were lost. What is being taken away is not just the right to vote, but also the political power that decides where federal money goes, who builds wealth, and who is left with debt.
A policy that protects against new harm, while ignoring past and ongoing damage, is not a real solution. It is just one piece of the puzzle.
The Courts Cannot Be Allowed to Define Black Citizenship Again
Reparations are both a moral and legal way to address structural injustices like Black political erasure, which is what’s continuing to happen under the latest SCOTUS ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
Restoring what was lost means compensating for lost political representation and economic opportunities, rebuilding Black institutions that cannot be taken away by the courts, and ensuring these harms do not happen again.
The United States signed treaties in 1992 and 1994 that require an effective remedy when voting rights are violated because of race.
The United Nations’ guidelines on reparations call for restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, and guarantees that the harm will not be repeated. This means remedying Black voter disenfranchisement in as many ways as necessary—restoration of dignity, employment, and voting rights; compensation for economic, cultural, and political losses; mental health care and legal support; and institutional changes that ensure the Supreme Court can’t 3/5ths a U.S. citizen and cement the neo-Confederacy on any given day.
Congress already has the needed legislation. H.R. 40, which would create a federal commission to investigate federal crimes and propose comprehensive reparations for Black Americans, has been introduced in every Congress since 1989. It passed out of the Judiciary Committee for the first time in 2021, and it has been prevented from receiving a full floor vote. Tennessee’s actions have ended any reason to delay reparations.
Congress must pass both the John Lewis Act and H.R. 40—not one without the other. The CBC must lead on both, not settle for the safer option that continues to cost us Black life and Black political power. We can no longer opt into perpetual surrender.
The Removal of Black Districts Has Real-Life Consequences
What is happening across the South is about more than just maps and redistricting. The same system that removes Black districts also decides where schools get funding, where hospitals and parks are built, who gets jobs, who is pushed out, and whose children are sent to war. Political erasure is how economic and cultural deprivation continues.
This country still builds its wealth on exploited Black labor and has spent 150 years making sure Black communities could not turn gains into lasting political power. Reparations are the only response that matches the scale of this injustice. The John Lewis Act offers protection, but not structural change. H.R. 40 addresses the core injustice and aims to prevent future harm. Congress must pass both, because anything less facilitates the continued theft of our rights and livelihoods and protects the thieves.
