"“We call ourselves the old men down the hall,” says 88-year-old retired chemistry professor Press Robinson. The men drink coffee, eat donuts and talk. When the group of retirees met a few Fridays ago, the conversation turned to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court two days before, which declared their home congressional district an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The landmark ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, with experts saying it is now practically impossible to challenge racial discrimination in redistricting."
"“They've just killed the Voting Rights Act,” Robinson says. “It has no teeth at all.” So with the high court's blessing, Louisiana Republican lawmakers are now racing to redraw the congressional map. The state Senate is set to advance a map Thursday that would eliminate one of the state's two majority-Black, Democratic-held districts ahead of the midterms. The dismantling of that district, which stretches in a Z-shape across the state from Baton Rouge to Shreveport, is not only the latest salvo in the war over redistricting."
"For 91-year-old James Verrett, a retired history teacher, the recent Supreme Court ruling was a gut punch. Verrett participated in the struggle to pass the VRA. When he returned home from military service overseas, only to find Louisiana still treated him as a second-class citizen, Verrett joined protests for voting rights. “I've been beaten with billy sticks, dogs and tear gas,” Verrett says. “We moved forward. But now the Supreme Court and the state courts are making it back up to where it was.”"
A group of elderly men meets at a community gym, drinks coffee, eats donuts, and discusses a recent Supreme Court decision. The ruling in Louisiana v. Callais declared their congressional district an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Experts say the change makes it practically impossible to challenge racial discrimination in redistricting. Louisiana Republican lawmakers are racing to redraw the congressional map, with a state Senate vote planned to eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black, Democratic-held districts ahead of the midterms. The district’s Z-shaped lines reflect a long-running fight over voting rights that began after the VRA passed in 1965. Retired educators describe earlier activism against second-class treatment and violent repression, and they view the new legal shift as a reversal.
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