U.S. Supreme Court denies bid by Alabama lawmakers in redistricting fight
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t intervene in the fight over Alabama’s congressional maps. On Tuesday, the court denied a bid by state lawmakers for another look at the fight about the state having a second Black majority congressional district. Several groups sued to overturn the state’s 2021 congressional maps, which had one of seven districts majority Black. It was a last-ditch effort by the state to keep maps drawn during July’s special session and rejected by a three-judge federal panel earlier this month. The U.S. District Court will pick between three congressional maps drawn by a court-appointed special master and a cartographer. All three will create Black-majority districts and be a likely pickup for Democrats. “This is a victory for all Americans, particularly voters of color, who have fought tirelessly for equal representation as citizens of this nation,” former Attorney General Eric Holder said in a release. “Even with this court’s landmark decision to uphold Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Alabama Republicans have defied court orders at every turn by refusing to enact a map that gives Black Alabamians the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice in two districts. “These shameful, odious efforts to diminish the rightful voting power of Black Alabamians have finally been defeated. As a result, we will see more representative maps in places that were once thought to be unreachable in the fight for fairness: Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia. Justice has prevailed.” On June 8, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Allen v. Milligan that said Alabama’s previously-drawn map violated the Voting Rights Act and ordered new maps that create an “opportunity district” for minority voters to cast ballots for the candidates of their choice. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Special master deadline to finish redistricting maps is today
Monday is the court’s deadline for the special master to complete his work on redrawing Alabama’s Congressional districts. On Friday, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to soon rule on Alabama’s emergency appeal to keep the partisan congressional district lines drawn by the Alabama Legislature in a July special session in place. The three-judge panel has ordered the state to draw a new congressional district map with a second majority-Black district, or something close to it. The legislature submitted a map that increased the percentage of Black voters in Alabama’s Second Congressional District from 30 percent Black voters to 39.9 percent. The three-judge panel ruled that that map still violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965. State Representative Jim Hill (R-Odenville) told the St. Clair County Republican Party on Thursday the three-judge panel ordered the state to submit a plan with two majority-minority or very close to it. “The Legislature passed a map with a 40% Black district. The three-judge panel absolutely did not accept that,” Hill said. Hill said that this case, and its implications in other states has national repercussions on control of the U.S. House of Representatives. “The Republicans hold a (House) majority right at this moment, but it is very narrow,” Hill said. “It very easily could swing the majority of Congress back to the Democrats.” Attorney General Steve Marshall (R-Alabama) asked the three-judge panel to stay their redrawing of the congressional district maps while the state appeals to the Supreme Court. The three-judge panel refused, ruling that it was unlikely that the Supreme Court would find in the state’s favor. Marshall and the state’s attorneys are now asking the Supreme Court to put the redistricting on hold. Attorneys for the civil rights groups that challenged the state’s 2021 congressional redistricting are asking the court to reject the state’s request that they pause the court-ordered redrawing of the district maps. The plaintiffs in the case said that the state of Alabama “knowingly and intentionally” defied the three-judge panel’s orders and passed a map that continued to dilute the influence of Black voters in congressional elections. As it stands today, what maps the state will use for next year’s congressional elections are up in the air until the Supreme Court rules on Marshall’s request for a pause. “We are now in a waiting game,” explained Rep. Hill, who is a retired circuit judge. If the court does not order a pause in the process, then the three-judge panel is expected to consider the special master’s options in an October 3 hearing. If the Supreme Court orders a pause in the process, then the 2024 election could proceed with the map prepared by the Legislature in July, even if the court ultimately finds against the state. The major party primaries are on March 5, with candidate qualifying beginning on October 16. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Alabama files emergency appeal with Supreme Court begging Court to stay a lower court ruling in the congressional redistricting case
On Monday, a federal three-judge panel issued a decision rejecting a request by the State of Alabama to pause implementation of their September 4th ruling striking down a partisan redistricting plan passed by the Alabama Legislature in July while the state appeals the Court’s decision. Following that legal setback, the state has filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for the Court to freeze the three-judge panel’s ruling by October 1. The three-judge panel has appointed a special master to draw new redistricting maps for the state of Alabama after the Alabama Legislature failed twice to produce a map that the Court believes complies with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The special master will present the three-judge panel with potential maps dividing the state of Alabama into seven congressional districts. The Court will then select the map that they think is best. The Alabama Democratic Party told Alabama Today that qualifying for Congress and other offices opens up for the Alabama Democratic Party on September 29 – before the district boundaries and racial compositions are even known. Republican qualifying does not begin until October 16. Candidate qualifying for both parties ends on November 10. The three-judge panel told the state that the state’s appeal will likely fail, which is why they did not grant the pause in their ruling. “The Secretary has lost three times already, and one of those losses occurred on appeal,” the three federal judges wrote in their ruling. “We have twice enjoined a plan that includes only one majority-Black or Black-opportunity district on the grounds that it likely dilutes the votes of Black Alabamians in violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act.” The Court has ruled that since the state is 27 percent Black, two of the seven congressional districts should be majority Black. Currently, Alabama has six majority White congressional districts and just one, the Seventh, majority Black district. At this time, we believe that all seven of Alabama’s congressional incumbents will run for another term. That could change depending on what the redrawn districts look like. The Constitution only requires that candidates for Congress be residents of the state. It does not require that they live in the congressional district. The uncertainty of the district lines most harms Independent and minor candidates. They have to get ballot access signatures from registered voters in their districts. Without knowing what any of the districts look like, those costly petition drives would be working purely on speculation and guesswork. Any voter’s signature that ultimately was not in the district would not count and would be rejected by the Secretary of State’s office. The state has argued that drawing two majority Black districts in the state of Alabama will result in districts that are not suitably compact and would result in the dividing communities of interest like the Alabama Gulf Coast or the Wiregrass region. The major party primaries will be on March 5. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Federal court rejects Alabama’s request for a pause on congressional map ruling
On Monday, the State of Alabama suffered another major setback in its ongoing congressional redistricting map saga when the federal three-judge panel that is hearing Alabama’s congressional redistricting case denied the state’s request that the ruling be paused to give the state time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court – again. The federal three-judge panel wrote in their ruling on Monday, “It is exceptionally unusual for a litigant who has presented his arguments to the Supreme Court once already — and lost — to assert that he is now ‘overwhelmingly likely’ to prevail on those same arguments in that Court in this case.” The three-judge panel ruled that the state likely violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 when it passed a congressional redistricting plan in 2021 that created six majority-white and just one majority-Black Congressional District. The court ordered the state to suspend the 2022 congressional elections and submit a compliant map. The state refused and instead appealed to the Supreme Court. The high court upheld the three-judge panel’s order allowing the 2022 election to proceed with the 2021 maps. In June, the Supreme Court ruled in Allen v. Milligan that the three-judge panel was right in their 2022 preliminary ruling and remanded the case back to them in a controversial 5 to 4 ruling against the state of Alabama. After the state’s rebuke by the Supreme Court, the three-judge panel ordered the state to prepare a map with two majority-minority districts “or something close to it.” The Alabama State Legislature met in a July special session. Instead of complying with the court order, the Republican-dominated Legislature passed a new map that increased the Second Congressional District from 30% Black voting age population to 39.9%. The Republicans in the Senate claimed that their ‘Livingston 3’ map kept communities of interest together and was as compact as possible. They argued that this was as close to fulfilling the court’s order. Never mind that the Republican-dominated House of Representatives had passed a map by Representative Chris Pringle (R-Mobile) with a 43.3% Black 2nd District. When the Pringle plan arrived in the Senate, State Senator Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro) simply substituted it for his Livingston 3 map. The state adopted the Livingston 3 map. Livingston and Pringle are the joint co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Reapportionment. The Legislature’s Democrats and the civil rights groups suing the state asked the three-judge panel to reject the partisan Livingston 3 map. The three-judge panel complied, ruling that it (like the 2021 redistricting map) violated the Voting Rights Act. The court has appointed a special master to draw Alabama’s new congressional districts map. Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R), on the advice of Attorney General Steve Marshall (R), appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Monday’s setback by the three-judge panel means that the court-appointed special master will continue redrawing the state’s seven congressional districts to create that second majority Black District. That map, which nobody has seen yet, will likely be the map the state will use to vote next year. The special master is supposed to be finished with his new map by September 25. The state is still asking the Supreme Court to intervene, but there is no guarantee that the Court will even hear this case. If it does agree to listen to the case, it is unknown if the Justices will allow the 2024 election to proceed with the Legislature’s Livingston 3 map or if they will allow the election to proceed with the new special master map. Democrats hope to use the Allen v. Milligan ruling to force states to create new majority-minority districts. The major party primaries are on March 5. The Alabama Democratic Party told Alabama Today Monday that candidate qualifying for Democrats will open on September 29. The Alabama Republican Party announced during the day that GOP candidate qualifying will not begin until October 16. Both parties are closing qualifying on November 10. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Alabama will challenge decision in redistricting case
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office announced in a statement late on Tuesday that the state will appeal Tuesday’s ruling by the federal three-judge panel rejecting the Alabama Legislature’s latest congressional redistricting map. Marshall’s office said, “While we are disappointed in (Tuesday’s) decision, we strongly believe that the legislature’s map complies with the Voting Rights Act and the recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.’ In filed papers with the Court, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen disclosed an intent to appeal the three-judge panel decision. The Legislature passed a new congressional redistricting map in a July special session. In June, the state was ordered to create a map with two majority-minority districts or something close to it by the three-judge panel. The Republican supermajority of the Alabama Legislature ignored the instructions of the court order and instead just increased the percentage of Black Voters in Alabama’s Second Congressional District from 30% to 39.9% and called it an “opportunity district.” The three-judge panel wrote that that partisan new map still violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and ordered a court-appointed special master to draw Alabama’s new congressional district lines. “We are deeply troubled that the state enacted a map that the state readily admits does not provide the remedy we said federal law requires,” the Judges wrote in their order on Tuesday. The state disagrees and will appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. Legislators close to the redistricting told Alabama Today that appealing this case to the Supreme Court was always the plan and that they expected the three-judge panel would find against the state’s map. Marshall himself, in recent remarks to the Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee in Montgomery, expressed skepticism that the three-judge panel would find in favor of the state but that the state would appeal. The same three-judge panel ruled in 2022 that Alabama’s 2021 congressional redistricting map also violated the Voting Rights Act and ordered the state Legislature to draw a new map. Instead, the state defied the Court by refusing to draw a new map. The state appealed then to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court initially stayed the three-judge panel order of a new map and allowed the 2022 congressional elections to proceed under the 2021 map. The Supreme Court, however, eventually ruled in June in favor of the civil rights groups suing the state and upheld the three-judge panel’s 2022 preliminary ruling that the state had likely violated the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme ruled 5 to 4 that the 2021 congressional redistricting map likely does violate the Voting Rights Act and referred the case back to the three-judge panel. The majority decision was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and supported by the three liberal justices. Brett Kavanaugh was the deciding vote. The state is staking its case on Kavanaugh reversing himself and instead finding in favor of the State of Alabama when the state makes its case before the Court for a second time. The Supreme Court is under no obligation to even hear this case. Also at issue is whether the 2024 congressional elections will use the July map drawn by the Legislature or the new map that the three-judge panel ordered on Tuesday for a special master to draw. The special master won’t be finished with that new map until September 25. The state has said it needs to have a map in place by October 1, as major party qualifying for the election will begin next month. If the Court agrees to hear the state’s appeal, it will take months for the legal process, and the major party primaries are set for March 5. At this point, no one in the State of Alabama knows with any certainty which congressional district they live in moving forward. The state contends it cannot draw a map with two majority-minority districts that is suitably compact and doesn’t divide communities of interest. The state has argued that dividing Mobile County or putting Mobile and Baldwin Counties (the two Alabama Gulf Coast counties) in separate congressional districts is unreasonable. They also say that the Wiregrass region of southeast Alabama should not be divided. The civil rights groups suing the state argue that these concerns are secondary to the Voting Rights Act. They demand that communities of color be allowed to pick their own congressional representation. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Alabama House and Senate both advance GOP congressional redistricting plans
On Wednesday, the Alabama House of Representatives passed a controversial congressional redistricting plan along party lines that failed to create a second majority-minority district. Hours later, the Alabama Senate passed a similar plan that also failed to turn Alabama’s Second Congressional District into a majority-minority district. Civil rights groups are demanding that the Alabama Legislature create a second majority-minority district after the three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals declared Alabama’s 2021 Congressional rezoning in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After initially staying the decision, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the Legislature’s 2021 plan denied Black Alabamians (27% of the population the ability to choose their own congressional representation). The court has ordered the state to present a new redistricting map by July 21. The National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) accused the Legislature of defying the court order by not preparing a plan with two majority-minority districts. The NRF is the 501(c)(3) affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), Marina Jenkins is the Executive Director of the NRF. “The maps passed by the Alabama House and Senate are in flagrant disregard of the Alabama district court’s order to enact a map with two districts in which Black Alabamians can elect a candidate of their choice, and the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the lower court,” said Executive Director Jenkins in a statement. “This shameful process, riddled with partisan schemes deployed at the expense of Black voters’ rights, has failed the voters of Alabama who deserve a fair and compliant congressional map. Time and time again, Republican legislators have shown their intentions lie solely in maintaining their own political power and silencing the constituents they are meant to represent. Neither the House nor Senate map meet the requirement of the court’s order, or the law, and will be challenged.” The plaintiffs in Milligan v. Allen that challenged the 2021 redistricting presented two maps to the court showing either two 51% Black districts or two districts that were 48% Black. The NRF has endorsed a heavily gerrymandered (along racial lines) plan that results in a 52.2% Black Second Congressional District and a 56.7% Black Seventh Congressional District. The NRF-supported plan achieved that by dividing Mobile County into a majority-Black section that would be in the new majority-minority district that would stretch from the Mississippi to Georgia state lines and an overwhelmingly White portion that would then be in the First Congressional District with nearby Baldwin County (which is overwhelmingly White and Republican). It similarly divides Jefferson and Tuscaloosa Counties along racial lines. The Seventh Congressional District is already a majority-minority district represented since 2011 by Rep. Terri Sewell – a Black Democrat. That plan also puts Congressman Jerry Carl (R-AL01) and Congressman Barry Moore (R-AL02) into the same district – the First. The Republicans in the Alabama Legislature have rejected any plan that divides Mobile County or splits Baldwin and Mobile into separate congressional districts. They argue that the Alabama Gulf Coast and the Wiregrass regions should not be divided. The Republican Legislators call their plan the Communities of Interest Plan. The House passed a version of that plan that keeps Mobile and Baldwin whole and in the First Congressional District but increases the number of Black voters in the Second Congressional District to 42.5%. The Seventh Congressional District would be 52.15% Black. The Legislative Committee on Reapportionment is chaired by State Rep. Chris Pringle – a Mobile Republican – and State Sen. Steve Livingston – a North Alabama Republican. Pringle sponsored the plan that the House of Representatives passed, while Livingston sponsored the plan that the Senate passed. Pringle insisted that even though there are more Whites than Blacks in his plan’s Second Congressional District, it would be a toss-up district that either party could win. Black legislators insisted that the only way a Black person could win a congressional race in Alabama is if the district is majority Black. In the Senate plan, the Second Congressional District would become 38.8% Black, and the Seventh Congressional District would remain majority Black. If either of the Republican plans passes the Legislature on Friday as drawn today, the plaintiffs are almost certain to reject that plan and ask the three-judge panel in Atlanta to reject the Alabama GOP plan and appoint a special master to draw the districts. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
In Selma, Joe Biden says right to vote remains under assault
President Joe Biden used the searing memories of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” to recommit to a cornerstone of democracy, lionizing a seminal moment from the civil rights movement at a time when he has been unable to push enhanced voting protections through Congress, and a conservative Supreme Court has undermined a landmark voting law. “Selma is a reckoning. The right to vote … to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty. With it anything’s possible,” Biden told a crowd of several thousand people seated on one side of the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a reputed Ku Klux Klan leader. “This fundamental right remains under assault. The conservative Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act over the years. Since the 2020 election, a wave of states and dozens and dozens of anti-voting laws fueled by the ‘Big Lie’ and the election deniers now elected to office,” he said. As a candidate in 2020, Biden promised to pursue sweeping legislation to bolster protection of voting rights. Two years ago, his 2021 legislation, named after civil rights leader John Lewis, the late Georgia congressman, included provisions to restrict partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, strike down hurdles to voting and bring transparency to a campaign finance system that allows wealthy donors to bankroll political causes anonymously. It passed the then-Democratic-controlled House, but it failed to draw the 60 votes needed to advance in a Senate under control by Biden’s party. With Republicans now running the House, passage of such legislation is highly unlikely. “We know we must get the votes in Congress,” Biden said, but there seems no viable path right now. The visit to Selma was a chance for Biden to speak directly to the current generation of civil rights activists. Many feel let down because of the lack of progress on voting rights, and they are eager to see his administration keep the issue in the spotlight. Few moments have had as lasting importance to the civil rights movement as what happened on March 7, 1965, in Selma and in the weeks that followed. Some 600 peaceful demonstrators led by Lewis and fellow activist Hosea Williams had gathered that day, just weeks after the fatal shooting of a young Black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, by an Alabama trooper. Lewis and the others were brutally beaten by Alabama troopers and sheriff’s deputies as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge at the start of what was supposed to be a 54-mile walk to the state Capitol in Montgomery as part of a larger effort to register Black voters in the South. “On this bridge, blood was given to help redeem the soul of America,” Biden said. The images of the police violence sparked outrage across the country. Days later, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led what became known as the “Turnaround Tuesday” march, in which marchers approached a wall of police at the bridge and prayed before turning back. President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act of 1965 eight days after “Bloody Sunday,” calling Selma one of those rare moments in American history where “history and fate meet at a single time.” On March 21, King began a third march, under federal protection, that grew by thousands by the time they arrived at the state Capitol. Five months later, Johnson signed the bill into law. This year’s commemoration came as the historic city of roughly 18,000 was still digging out from the aftermath of a January EF-2 tornado that destroyed or damaged thousands of properties in and around Selma. The scars of that storm were still evident Sunday. Blocks from the stage where Biden spoke, houses sat crumbled or without roofs. Orange spray paint marked buildings beyond salvage with instructions to “tear down.” “We remain Selma strong,” Mayor James Perkins said, adding that “we will build back better.” He thanked Biden for approving a disaster declaration that helped the small city with the cost of debris cleanup and removal. ADVERTISEMENT Before Biden’s visit, the Rev. William Barber II, a co-chair of Poor People’s Campaign, and six other activists wrote Biden and members of Congress to express their frustration with the lack of progress on voting rights legislation. They urged Washington politicians visiting Selma not to sully the memories of Lewis and Williams and other civil rights activists with empty platitudes. “We’re saying to President Biden, let’s frame this to America as a moral issue, and let’s show how it effects everybody,” Barber said in an interview. Among those sharing the stage with Biden before the march across the bridge were Barber, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King III, and the Rev. Al Sharpton. On the bridge crossing, marchers sang “This Little Light of Mine” and “We Shall Overcome,” and, following tradition, once they reached the point where Lewis and others were told in 1958 that they were on an unlawful march, they stopped and prayed. Water bottles were passed out to some who had gathered to hear Biden, and at least one person was taken away on a stretcher because of the upper-70s heat. Some had waited hours in the sun before relief came from shadows cast by nearby buildings. Delores Gresham, 65, a retired healthcare worker from Birmingham, arrived four hours early, grabbing a front-row spot so her grandchildren could hear the president and see the commemoration. “I want them to know what happened here,” she said. In his remarks, Biden said, “Everyone should know the truth of Selma.” And the president took a veiled dig at a high-profile Republican, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, when he said: “We should learn everything. The good, the bad, the truth, who we are as a nation.” DeSantis’ administration has blocked a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools, saying it violates state law and is historically inaccurate. Last year, he signed legislation that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses. More recently, his budget office called on state colleges to submit spending information on programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical
U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on case challenging Alabama redistricting
On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Merrill versus Milligan. The case will decide whether or not Alabama’s redrawn congressional map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). Evan Milligan, the Director of Alabama Forward, sued in federal court, claiming that the 2021 redistricting congressional map prepared and passed by the Alabama Legislature dilutes the voting power of African Americans in the state. In Alabama, African Americans make up over 27% of the eligible voters, but six of the seven Congressional districts are majority White. Congresswoman Terri Sewell is the only African American in Alabama’s Congressional Delegation and is the only Democrat to hold any office higher than State Senator in the state of Alabama. She attended today’s oral arguments. “We in Alabama are no strangers to the fight for fair representation,” said Rep. Sewell. “After all, it was in Selma—almost six decades ago—where John Lewis and so many Foot Soldiers shed blood on a bridge for the equal right of all Americans to vote. But today, we know that old battles have become new again. As the Voting Rights Act of 1965 remains on life-support, states across the nation are racing to restrict voting access to dilute our power and erase our progress. Today, they are taking aim at one of the last remaining provisions of the VRA, Section 2.” “Fair representation matters,” continued Sewell. “I urge our Justices to do what is right and uphold the protections that our foremothers and forefathers fought so hard to secure. I also urge the Senate to do its job and pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the full power of the VRA.” In 2013 Sewell attended the oral arguments of the Supreme Court’s Shelby v. Holder case which Shelby County challenged Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, claiming that the section which required that the state get preclearance for any voting changes, including redistricting, was obsolete. The conservative majority of the Supreme Court agreed with Shelby County and the City of Calera and invalidated Section 4. The result of that decision meant that the Biden Justice Department did not have to give preclearance to the 2021 redistricting and other voting law changes that have occurred since Shelby v. Holder. Milligan and his attorneys claim that the six majority to 1 majority-minority split by the legislature (which mirrors the 2010 redistricting that was approved by the Obama Justice Department) is a violation of Section 2. Milligan and Alabama Forward argued that the state should have two Black-majority districts. John Merrill is Alabama’s Secretary of State and, as such, is tasked with being the state’s top election official. A lower court panel of three judges agreed with Milligan, but the State of Alabama appealed to the Supreme Court, resulting in a stay of the lower court decision. The state has argued that the only way to create two majority-Black districts would be to focus solely on race, which the state argues the Supreme Court has already directed them not to do. The state has also argued that such a map would unnecessarily disturb communities of interest, such as putting Baldwin and Mobile, Alabama’s two coastal counties a consideration, in different districts. The court could affirm that the Alabama Legislature got it right, or the court could order a new map to be drawn. It would be up to the court whether that new map would be drawn by the Legislature or by the court itself. Alabama Today has obtained four alternative maps that have been drawn, creating either creating two majority-minority districts or, failing that, two districts that would likely be won by a minority, including one that does not divide counties. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Plan advances to alter name of Edmund Pettus Bridge
Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday advanced legislation that would alter the name of Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge to honor those who were beaten on the bridge as they marched for civil rights in 1965. The Alabama Senate voted 23-3 for legislation that would change the official name to the “Edmund W. Pettus-Foot Soldiers Bridge.” However, the lettering on the famous bridge would remain unaltered. The name “Foot Soldiers” would be on a separate sign that would include a silhouette of the marchers. The bill dubbed the “Healing History Act,” now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives with three meeting days remaining in the legislative session. The bridge in 1940 was named after Pettus, a Confederate general and reputed Ku Klux Klan leader. However, 25 years later, it became an enduring symbol of the civil rights movement after marchers were beaten by law enforcement officers on the bridge in 1965. The melee became known as Bloody Sunday and helped lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “Not a single letter would be touched. It would stay intact in its historical context. And at the same time… honor the history that is there and the history that came out of it,” said state Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier, a Democrat from Selma. Through the years, some have proposed changing the name of the bridge, including a push to name it for the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis. The Georgia congressman was one of the demonstrators beaten on the bridge in 1965. Sanders-Fortier said many who marched for civil rights in her community do not want the bridge name changed entirely because of what the bridge has come to represent. State Sen. Gerald Allen, the author of a state law forbidding the removal and renaming of longstanding monuments and memorials, voted against the name alteration. The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act was approved as some cities began taking down Confederate monuments and emblems. Allen said the name of the Edmund Pettus Bridge is famous across the world. “If you add to it, you change it,” Allen said. The bill also would steer funds to provide for the commissioning and protection of new monuments and the preservation of sites that have significance to Alabama history. Sanders-Fortier said it is important to honor all of the state’s history and “to heal from our past so we can move forward as a state.” “Many of the events in our state’s history have been traumatizing, been traumatizing to African-American folk to Indigenous folk to white folk,” she said, adding that healing means considering the “hurt of each group.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
EPA chief tours sewage problems in Alabama’s Black Belt
The head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency said he witnessed “unacceptable” problems with raw sewage fouling properties of residents of Alabama’s Black Belt. EPA Administrator Michael Regan got a firsthand look Saturday at homes in Lowndes County, where malfunctioning septic systems discharged sewage into backyards and between mobile homes. He was in the region ahead of the commemoration of the “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march in Selma that helped bolster support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Regan said it was “sobering” to see failing septic systems, raw sewage backing up into yards and homes, and children forced to walk gingerly in soggy front yards, al.com reported. “This is unacceptable,” Regan said. “Safe drinking water, safe sewer systems, you know, this is a basic right. These individuals deserve what every American deserves, which is clean water and a safe environment.” Wastewater treatment has been a decades-old problem in parts of Alabama’s Black Belt, where communities often lack traditional sewer lines. Septic tank systems have been a poor alternative because the region’s heavy clay soil traps water near the surface. Federal, state, and local officials have spent years seeking solutions. Regan and Agriculture Undersecretary for Rural Development Xochitl Torres Small, who was also on the Saturday tour, said the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 could help make solutions a reality. Among the residents speaking out during the EPA chief’s visit was 59-year-old Jerry Smith. “When it rains, all this whole area floods and the waste comes right behind,” Smith said. “That’s what we’ve been dealing with.” Smith added: “This is ridiculous that we, you know, we pay taxes on this property and the property is contaminated.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Kamala Harris marks ‘Bloody Sunday’ anniversary in Selma
Vice President Kamala Harris visited Selma, Alabama, on Sunday to commemorate a defining moment in the fight for equal voting rights, even as congressional efforts to restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act have faltered. Under a blazing blue sky, Harris linked arms with rank-and-file activists from the civil rights movement and led thousands across the bridge where, on March 7, 1965, white state troopers attacked Black voting rights marchers attempting to cross. The images of violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge — originally named for a Confederate general — shocked the nation and helped galvanize support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Harris called the site hallowed ground where people fought for the “most fundamental right of America citizenship: the right to vote.” “Today, we stand on this bridge at a different time,” Harris said in a speech before the gathered crowd. “We again, however, find ourselves caught in between. Between injustice and justice. Between disappointment and determination. Still in a fight to form a more perfect union. And nowhere is that more clear than when it comes to the ongoing fight to secure the freedom to vote.” The nation’s first female vice president — as well as the first African American and Indian American in the role — spoke of marchers whose “peaceful protest was met with crushing violence. They were kneeling when the state troopers charged. They were praying when the billy clubs struck.” Police beat and tear-gassed the marchers, fracturing the skull of young activist John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement who went on to long and celebrated career as a Georgia congressman. President Joe Biden on Sunday renewed his call for the passage of voting legislation, saying the groundbreaking 1965 Voting Rights Act “has been weakened not by brute force, but by insidious court decisions.” The proposed legislation is named for Lewis, who died in 2020, and is part of a broader elections package that collapsed in the U.S. Senate earlier this year. “In Selma, the blood of John Lewis and so many other courageous Americans sanctified a noble struggle. We are determined to honor that legacy by passing legislation to protect the right to vote and uphold the integrity of our elections,” Biden said in a statement. Democrats have been unsuccessfully trying to update the landmark law and pass additional measures to make it more convenient for people to vote. A key provision of the law was tossed out by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2013. Among those gathered Sunday were rank-and-file activists from the 1965 march. Harris walked across the bridge beside Charles Mauldin, who was sixth in line behind Lewis on Bloody Sunday and was beaten with a nightstick. Two women who fled the violence said having a Black woman as vice president seemed unimaginable 57 years ago. “That’s why we marched,” said Betty Boynton, the daughter-in-law of voting rights activist Amelia Boynton. “I was at the tail end and all of the sudden I saw these horses. Oh my goodness, and all of the sudden … I saw smoke. I didn’t know what tear gas was. They were beating people,” Boynton said recalling Bloody Sunday. But Boynton said the anniversary is tempered by fears of the impact of new voting restrictions being enacted. “And now they are trying to take our voting rights from us. I wouldn’t think in 2022 we would have to do all over again what we did in 1965,” Boynton said. Ora Bell Shannon, 90, of Selma, was a young mother during the march and ran from the bridge with her children. Ahead of Bloody Sunday, she and other Black citizens stood in line for days at a time trying to register to vote in the then white-controlled city, facing impossible voter tests and long lines. “They knew you wouldn’t be able to pass the test,” Shannon recalled. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 gutted a portion of the 1965 law that required certain states with a history of discrimination in voting, mainly in the South, to get U.S. Justice Department approval before changing the way they hold elections. The supporters of the end of preclearance said the requirement — while necessary in the 1960s — was no longer needed. Voting rights activists have warned the end of preclearance is emboldening states to pass a new wave of voting restrictions. The proposed Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act would restore the preclearance requirement and put nationwide standards for how elections operate — such as making Election Day a national holiday and allowing early voting nationwide. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Voter turnout sagging in troubled voting rights hub of Selma
Fewer and fewer people are voting in Selma, Alabama. And to many, that is particularly heartbreaking. They lament that almost six decades after Black demonstrators on the city’s Edmond Pettus Bridge risked their lives for the right to cast ballots, voting in predominantly Black Selma and surrounding Dallas County has steadily declined. Turnout in 2020 was under 57%, among the worst in the state. “It should not be that way. We should have a large voter turnout in all elections,” said Michael Jackson, a Black district attorney elected with support from voters of all races. Thousands will gather on March 6 for this year’s re-enactment of the bridge crossing to honor the foot soldiers of that “Bloody Sunday” in 1965. Downtown will resemble a huge street festival during the event, known as the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee, with thousands of visitors, blaring music, and vendors selling food and T-shirts. Another Selma event, less celebratory and more activist, was held last year by Black Voters Matter. The aim was to boost Black power at the ballot box. But the issues in Selma — a onetime Confederate arsenal, located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Montgomery in Alabama’s old plantation region — defy simple solutions. Some cite a hangover from decades of white supremacist voter suppression, others a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that gutted key provisions of federal voting law to allow current GOP efforts to tighten voting rules. Some Black voters, who tend to vote Democratic, simply don’t see the point in voting in a state where every statewide office is held by white Republicans who also control the Legislature. Then there is what some describe as infighting between local leaders, and low morale in a crime-ridden town with too many pothole-covered streets, too many abandoned homes, and too many vacant businesses. All are considered factors that helped lead to a 13% decline in population over the last decade in a town where more than one-third live in poverty. Despite visits from presidents, congressional leaders, and celebrity luminaries like Oprah Winfrey — and even the success of the 2014 historical film drama “Selma” by Ava DuVernay — Selma never seems to get any better. Resident Tyrone Clarke said he votes when work and travel allow, but not always. Many others don’t because of disqualifying felony convictions or disillusionment with the shrinking town of roughly 18,000 people, he said.ADVERTISEMENT “You have a whole lot of people who look at the conditions and don’t see what good it’s going to do for them,” Clarke said. “You know, ‘How is this guy or that guy being in office going to affect me in this little, rotten town here?’” But something else seems to be going on in Selma and Dallas County. Other poor, mostly Black areas have not seen the same drastic decline in turnout. Only one of Alabama’s majority Black counties, Macon, the home of historically Black Tuskegee University, had a lower voter turnout than Dallas in 2020. Selma is hardly the only place where big Black majorities don’t always translate to big voter turnout. The U.S. Census Bureau found that a racial gap persisted nationwide in voting in 2020, with about 71% of white voters casting ballots compared to 63% of eligible Black people. A majority of Dallas County’s voters are Black, and Black people made up the largest share of the county’s vote in 2020, about 68%, state statistics show. But white voters had a disproportionally larger share of the county electorate compared to Black voters, records showed. Jimmy L. Nunn, a former Selma city attorney who became Dallas County’s first Black probate judge in 2019, said the community is weighed down by its own history. “We have been programmed that our votes do not count, that we have no vote,” said Nunn, who works in the same county courthouse where white, Jim Crow officeholders refused to register Black voters, helping inspire the protests of 1965. “It is that mindset we have to change.” Selma entered voting rights legend because of what happened at the foot of the Edmond Pettus Bridge, which is named for a onetime Confederate general and reputed Ku Klux Klan leader, on March 7, 1965. After months of demonstrations and failed attempts to register Black people to vote in the white-controlled city, a long line of marchers led by John Lewis, then a young activist, crossed the span over the Alabama River headed toward the state capital of Montgomery to present demands to Gov. George C. Wallace, a segregationist. State troopers and sheriff’s posse members on horseback stopped them. A trooper bashed Lewis’ head during the ensuing melee and dozens more were hurt. Images of the violence reinforced the evil and depth of Southern white supremacy, helping build support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In the following decades, Selma became a worldwide touchstone for voting rights, with then-President Barack Obama speaking at the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 2015. “If Selma taught us anything, it’s that our work is never done,” he said. “The American experiment in self-government gives work and purpose to each generation.” But in Selma, voting already was on the decline. After more than 66% of Dallas County’s voters went to the polls in 2008, when Obama become the nation’s first Black president, turnout fell in each presidential election afterward. Shamika Mendenhall, a mother of two young children with a third on the way, was among registered voters who did not cast a ballot in 2020. She often goes to the annual jubilee that marks the anniversary of Bloody Sunday and has relatives who participated in voting rights protests of the 1960s, and she’s still a little sheepish about missing the election. “To choose our president we ought to vote,” said Mendenhall, 25. A Black member of the county’s Democratic Party executive committee, Collins Pettaway III spends a lot of time pondering how to get young voters like Mendenhall more engaged. Older residents who remember Bloody Sunday and the subsequent Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march vote, he said,
