Transcript:
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
We turn now to NPR’s Debbie Elliott, who joins us from Orange Beach, Alabama, a state that’s been at the center of the voting rights debate since the 1960s. Good morning, Debbie.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Hi there.
RASCOE: Let’s do a quick review of that history, starting with Selma, Alabama, in March of 1965.
ELLIOTT: Right. The brutal treatment of civil rights marchers there on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge is really what helped galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act in the first place. That, in turn, led to broader Black representation in the Deep South states that had long disenfranchised African Americans. So the question now is whether this Supreme Court ruling will result in an erosion of those gains. Georgia U.S. senator, the Reverend Raphael Warnock, certainly thinks so. Warnock, a Democrat, considers himself a beneficiary of the Voting Rights Act. He decries this ruling as a slap in the face of the civil rights martyrs and foot soldiers who fought for Black voters to have a voice.
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RAPHAEL WARNOCK: This ruling hearkens back to the darkest days of the Jim Crow era, when Black Americans were kept out of rooms of power. This is one huge step backwards for racial justice and for the health of our democracy.
ELLIOTT: Warnock says the justices literally changed the face of Congress in one fell swoop.
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RASCOE: After the Supreme Court ruling, Louisiana moved quickly to cancel its May primary and redraw congressional districts. It looks like other states in the South are following suit, right?
ELLIOTT: Right. There have been calls all over the region from Republican elected officials to do just that. Already, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has called a special session for next week to redraw lines. At stake there is the majority Black district that includes Memphis. Here in Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey has called the state legislature into special session starting Monday, that after the state’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to lift injunctions in voting rights cases that bar the state from changing its congressional map until after the next census in 2030. Now, Marshall says it’s time for Alabama to be treated like other states when it comes to drawing congressional lines, citing Virginia, Texas, California and New York.
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STEVE MARSHALL: For far too long, states that have been subject to the Voting Rights Act have been viewed from a lens that really is kind of centered on Black versus white as opposed to other states and appropriately what should be Alabama viewed from a lens of red and blue, where a conservative state, people want to elect conservative representatives, and our legislative delegation ought to have the opportunity to be able to draw districts consistent with that sentiment.
ELLIOTT: Now, Ayesha, remember, this is a state where Black people make up a little over a quarter of the population, and Black voters have sued to make sure they have representation.
RASCOE: A case a couple of years ago resulted in Alabama getting a second Black representative in Congress. You just visited that district. What did you hear from voters there?
ELLIOTT: Yeah. I met with Shalela Dowdy at a park in downtown Mobile. She is one of those Black voters who sued to make this new district a reality, and she also happens to be running for a state House seat to represent traditional Black neighborhoods here. Dowdy is disheartened by this Supreme Court ruling. She fears that their success is now in jeopardy.
SHALELA DOWDY: This is about taking power away from Black people.
ELLIOTT: As you can hear, she does not believe that this is simply about a party in power taking the political spoils, but she thinks it’s something much deeper and worries it could trickle down to other elected offices like state legislatures.
DOWDY: I feel like the work that was done during the Civil Rights Movement is being undone, and we’re seeing it unravel before our eyes. And I’m telling my age group, millennials and Gen Z, I’m like, hey, we’re about to enter the modern – our modern-day civil rights moment.
RASCOE: So a modern-day civil rights moment. What does that look like?
ELLIOTT: You know, immediately, we heard an outcry from civil rights groups who are vowing to fight. Melanie Campbell is CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. She says this upcoming midterm election is the battleground.
MELANIE CAMPBELL: We will organize. We will strategize. We will mobilize, and we will elect candidates who believe that every vote matters equally. History has taught us when we unite, we win. And we are not backing down.
ELLIOTT: And I imagine you will be seeing people show up at the statehouse in Alabama next week and at the state capitals in Tennessee and Louisiana to let lawmakers know how they feel. So already in Louisiana, there are a bevy of lawsuits as civil rights groups and Black voters are suing the state to try to stop lawmakers from redrawing congressional districts. So I guess stay tuned. The country appears headed for a long-term gerrymandering battle in both the courts and in the state capitals.
RASCOE: NPR’s Debbie Elliott in Orange Beach, Alabama. Thank you so much for joining us.
ELLIOTT: Thank you for having me.
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