Congressional Black Caucus members gathered for a news conference on Thursday to denounce a raft of oppressive measures deployed nationwide to curb the influence of nonwhite voters.
Rep. Steven Horsford kicked off the conference by saying the CBC this term has had to fight for everything from women’s bodily autonomy to fair districts to police accountability. But he reminded listeners that they’ve also had to fight the expulsion of Black elected officials, as well as “extremist Republicans and a judiciary who would rather erase us — who want to see us less free, and with fewer fundamental rights.”
Rep. Terri Sewell took Alabama Republicans to task for their apparent refusal to comply with a Supreme Court decision ordering the state Legislature to redraw its congressional map with an additional majority-Black district.
According to NBC News, the new, seemingly unlawful map was drawn after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy contacted Alabama legislators to express his concern that a new map would lead to Republicans losing their majority in the upcoming elections.
“At a time when many are trying to erase our history and roll back our progress, this is yet another reminder that old battles have indeed become new again,” Sewell said. “Across this nation, extremists are attempting to silence the voices of Black and minority voters, but we in Alabama have seen this before, and we are not going back without a fight.”
Rep. Troy Carter took the podium as well, attributing Republicans’ efforts to water down Black voter power as a math problem for them.
Similar to Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way earlier this year for Louisiana legislators to draw a second majority-Black congressional district, as a lower court had ordered. The 2020 census found Black people make up approximately 33% of the state’s population, but only one of Louisiana’s six total congressional districts is majority-Black.
“One-third of six is two,” Carter said, adding: “The numbers speak for themselves. Math is math.”
“It is imperative that we move beyond our troubled history and embrace fair maps that align with the data — the facts, the empirical information — that is not subject to politics, not subject to the whim of any individual,” he continued. “It’s just the facts. It’s just the math.”
Reapportionment accounts for population shifts and it is only fair, legal, & just that our maps reflect the math and represent #BlackVoices. Now is the time, and we will stand firm to demand justice and fight for a second majority-minority seat in #Louisiana. pic.twitter.com/dcZOA39yA6
— Congressman Troy A. Carter (@RepTroyCarter) July 27, 2023
Alabama and Louisiana are just two of many states where we’ve seen egregious, right-wing attempts at gerrymandering in recent years.
As CNN reported on the Louisiana redistricting case in June, Republicans in the state have argued the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t require them to draw a second majority-Black district:
In filings after the Alabama ruling was handed down, lawyers for the Louisiana Republican state officials argued that the Louisiana dispute presented a “unique situation” that would allow the high court to resolve legal questions about the Voting Rights Act that they claimed were left open by the Alabama ruling, known as Milligan. “Today’s decision in Milligan does not address the district court’s significant errors of law that should rightly result in reversal,” the Louisiana filing said.
Horsford was smart, in his initial comments, to frame gerrymandering as part of a multipronged, Republican effort to deprive nonwhite voters — particularly, Black voters — of power.
Republicans seem to understand that many of their policies are deeply offensive to many people of color. And disempowering these people, using a variety of tactics, is a way for Republicans to avoid being accountable to them.
But the U.S. is becoming increasingly diverse, and gerrymandering can only do so much to curb the impact of that diversity when it comes to drawing voter districts.
Republicans clearly want to keep running to courts to fix this “problem” of theirs. Perhaps, they should take it up with their abacus instead. Because the numbers don’t lie in places like Louisiana and Alabama, which are due for more Black voter representation.
Because, as Carter said, “math is math. It is what it is.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.