This week in the war on voters: GOP moves to redefine ‘Black’ to minimize voting power in the South

Southern Republican lawmakers in two states are calling into question who can officially call themselves Black. After decades of efforts to sublimate Black Americans with laws such as the “one-drop rule” that would limit their power and enforce a color line, the GOP now wants to erase Black Americans altogether. This is why we need Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act as soon as possible.

Republicans in Louisiana and Alabama are challenging a section of the Voting Rights Act in an effort to whitewash the power of Black voters. As NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang reports, the fight is over redrawing congressional districts in Alabama and Louisiana in the wake of the 2020 census. How the Supreme Court rules on an Alabama case will set the stage for what it means to be “Black”—and how these states define someone.

The challenge is to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Wang reports. The lower courts in both states have agreed that the way maps are currently drawn suppresses the strength of Black voters and therefore violates Section 2 by giving Black voters "less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.”

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