The Civil-Rights Veterans Watching Their Victories Wiped Out

In 1972, Press Robinson Sr., a Black chemistry professor, ran for the East Baton Rouge Parish school board because schools lacked resources for Black children. He faced repeated rejection during the campaign, and no Black candidate had previously been elected. The board was elected by wards that contained more white residents than Black residents, making victory structurally difficult. After losing in 1972 and again in 1976, Robinson concluded the problem was structural and challenged the system under the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2. In 1974 he sued to require single-member districts, and changes followed, leading to his successful election in 1980. Nearly fifty years later, he remained involved as a plaintiff in a Supreme Court case that weakened Section 2 and enabled continued gerrymandering.

"In 1972, Dr. Press Robinson Sr. decided to run for the school board in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. A chemistry professor at Southern University, Robinson was married with two sons and had grown frustrated with the lack of resources schools provided to Black children like his. He remembers the campaign as frustrating. No Black candidate had ever been elected to a seat, and the school board was chosen by wards - huge stretches of the parish with more white residents than Black."

"Robinson came to see the problem as structural. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 had a provision, Section 2, prohibiting electoral practices that discriminated on the basis of race. He felt his predicament was a clear example: There was no way for him to win in a district that was still grudgingly desegregating. Robinson took the school board to court in 1974, arguing that the parish should be divided into single-member districts so Black candidates had a chance to win."

"This move, along with pressure from state legislators, led to change, and in 1980, Robinson ran successfully for one of three newly created seats. "I really felt optimistic," he tells me of that time. But nearly 50 years later, Robinson is in the same fight. Now a gentle-spoken 88-year-old widower, Robinson was a plaintiff in the case that led to , the Supreme Court decision that gutted Section 2 and green-lit an ongoing gerrymandering blitz."

"The human costs of Callais are both overwhelming and underrated. As a legal precedent, the decision allows legislatures to redraw their"

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