Southern States Pass New Congressional Maps Eliminating Majority-Black Districts

Southern states have moved quickly to redraw congressional district maps following a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Louisiana map containing two majority-Black districts. Tennessee on Thursday became the first Southern state to pass a new redistricting map that eliminates its only majority-Black district.

The map splits the city of Memphis, which is more than 60 percent Black and has had its own congressional district since 1923, into three separate districts. The changes are expected to dilute the voting strength of Black residents who overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates.

Similar map revisions are advancing through legislatures in other Southern states that each have at least one majority-Black district. In Virginia, the state supreme court tossed out a redistricting plan that voters had approved in a special election last month.

In Florida, lawsuits are challenging the state's newly drawn map even though the state constitution bans partisan gerrymandering. Republicans in South Carolina are moving to eliminate the state's only Black-majority district, its lone Democratic seat.

Alabama officials want to reinstate a map the Supreme Court had rejected three years ago for diluting Black voting power.

Voting rights advocates said they are scrambling to respond to the speed of the map changes. A member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission told reporters Friday that Black voters are prepared to make noise. The advocate added that every time Black communities approach political power, the rules are recalibrated.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act bans voting rules that discriminate based on race. One advocate said the Supreme Court ruling allows such changes if they are presented as being for partisan reasons. A voting rights attorney with Fair Fight Action said the new maps will rob Black people in the South of political power.

A Civic Tennessee representative told reporters Friday that the map was not the will of the people. The representative said it was not the people who called the governor for a special session. Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, who is running for the House seat to represent Memphis, called the map a political lynching that sets the state back 150 years.

Advocates described the current redistricting efforts as part of a longer historical pattern. One advocate traced the changes to the Southern Strategy that followed passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The advocate said racial resentment was weaponized then and that the pattern has evolved but not disappeared.

The Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v Callais has prompted the rapid redraws before midterm elections. States acted less than a week after the decision. Advocates had spent decades seeking compliance with earlier court rulings and federal protections against discrimination at the polls.