Black Disenfranchisement Has Not Been This Intense Since Jim Crow

"The Supreme Court's decision to invalidate Louisiana's congressional map creating two Black-majority districts continues to remind us of how much the U.S. has backpedaled away from the so-called racial "reckoning" of the summer of 2020. The Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais undermines another key plank of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, passed more than 60 years ago with the intent of protecting Black Americans' voting rights and political representation."

"With SCOTUS ruling majority-minority districts as a form of discrimination against non-Black people, Republican-led states are poised to dilute Black political power in a manner echoing the Jim Crow era when white southerners retook power from elected Black lawmakers and neutralized Black Americans' voting rights for multiple generations."

"During Reconstruction, hundreds of African Americans won elected office as thousands of newly emancipated citizens engaged in the electoral process. The number of Black officeholders declined following Reconstruction's end in 1877, when federal troops were withdrawn from the South. White supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan launched terror campaigns against Black communities in efforts to blunt Black political power."

"White theft of African Americans' civil rights and economic power accompanied the destruction of Black political influence following the end of Reconstruction. White southerners moved to pass laws instituting segregation in education, public accommodatio"

The Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais invalidated Louisiana’s congressional map that created two Black-majority districts. The decision undermines a key Voting Rights Act provision designed to protect Black voting rights and political representation. The ruling treats majority-minority districts as discrimination against non-Black voters, which can allow Republican-led states to reduce Black political power. This pattern echoes the Jim Crow era, when white southerners regained control after Reconstruction and neutralized Black voting rights for generations. After Reconstruction ended in 1877 and federal troops withdrew, Black officeholding declined. White supremacist groups used terror campaigns to suppress Black political influence, while segregation laws and other restrictions further limited Black civil and economic power.

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