Southern States Move Toward Massive Disenfranchisement of African Americans
Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais, et.al eviscerates the already weakened Voting Rights Act of 1965
By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Wednesday May 13, 2026
Politico-Legal Analysis
On May 7, just hours after the Republican-dominated Tennessee State Assembly passed legislation which split Memphis into three separate congressional districts, the city which has a large majority of African Americans could be left with no relevant representation.
Protests in Nashville led by African American State Assembly members have generated even more attacks on opponents of the Louisiana v. Callais decision and the subsequent redrawing of the Memphis congressional map.
The Supreme Court voted along partisan lines with the 6 conservative justices ensuring that the Voting Rights Act passed by Congress in 1965 and signed into law by then President Lyndon Baines Johnson would be effectively eliminated. This legislation which grew directly out of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, opened the way for the first African American Congressional representation since the defeat of Reconstruction during the 1870s.
Efforts under the previous administration of President Joe Biden to pass renewed voting rights legislation named in honor of the late Congressman and Civil Rights activist John Lewis failed due to lack of votes in a Democratic-dominated House of Representatives and Senate in 2021. The John Lewis Voting Rights bill was scraped along with other legislation such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, represented promises made during the mass demonstrations and rebellions which occurred during 2020 leading up to the presidential and congressional elections of that year.
In addition, a $3.5 trillion social spending bill did not succeed either, which was purportedly aimed at reducing poverty among children. All of these failures since 2021, have worsened the social conditions among African Americans and other oppressed people.
This recent Supreme Court decision was not surprising considering the polls which indicate extremely low approval ratings for current President Donald Trump. His tariffs policies have prompted inflationary pressures while the unprovoked war on Iran has caused political and economic turmoil in the United States and internationally.
One Tennessee state legislator said during the session which disenfranchised African Americans in the state that the purpose of the redistricting bill was to ensure that right-wing Republicans maintain control of the House of Representatives. If the Democrats retake the House, the stage could be set for considerable acrimony within Congress over the final two years of the Trump second non-consecutive term.
Moreover, the unprovoked war against Iran has drawn even more negative reviews of the Trump administration. The State of Israel and the U.S. launched a bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 28 hoping for the collapse of the government in Tehran which has been in existence since early 1979.
Trump’s mantra of “making America great again” has alienated a considerable number of his right-wing base with the launching of the war on Iran. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether or not the failure of the U.S. in the Iran war and the concomitant outcomes including the rise in fuel, food and other consumer goods prices will turn Republicans away from Trump and his allies. The rise in inflation has impacted small and medium-sized business enterprises prompting lay-offs across the country.
Additional Attacks on Tennessee Voters
On the same day as the Tennessee Assembly voted to redraw the Memphis Congressional District, demonstrations were held in Nashville against this injustice. The African American representatives and their allies vowed to fight against the disenfranchisement of the people of Memphis and Shelby County.
The Tennessee State Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) immediately filed a lawsuit to overturn the redistricting legislation. In the claim filed by the NAACP in Tennessee it accuses Republican Governor Bill Lee of not informing the Assembly of the purpose of the special session which carried out the redistricting scheme.
In an article published in Tennessee Outlook, it notes:
“State attorneys are asking the court to deny the NAACP Tennessee chapter’s request to stop a redrawn congressional map from going into effect before the 2026 election. NAACP Tennessee President Gloria Sweet-Love and the NAACP Tennessee State Conference filed an emergency petition in Davidson County Chancery Court on May 7, hours after Gov. Bill Lee signed into law the new U.S. House district map — which carved up the state’s only majority-Black, majority-Democrat district in Memphis…. The NAACP and Sweet-Love contend that ‘the Governor didn’t use just the right magic words to describe the exact election laws he hoped to change when he convened the Special Session, and so any legislation resulting from the special session is ‘void,’ Skrmetti’s filing read. ‘Plaintiffs take an all too jaundiced view of the Tennessee Constitution and the Governor’s Proclamation that began the Special Session.’ The lawsuit also challenged a provision that suspends residency requirements for candidates in the newly drawn districts, similarly, stating that this was not included in Lee’s proclamation prior to the special session.
The state’s response said the lawsuit fails to identify ‘imminent harm.’” (https://tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/11/state-responds-to-tennessee-naacp-lawsuit-challenging-redistricted-map/)
Due to protests by African Americans and Democrats in the State House in Nashville, they have been removed from committee seats in the legislature. Consequently, the African American population of Tennessee is being silenced by the Republican majority.
The State of Tennessee’s argument that no damage has been done is outrageous. Just 61 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the federal government under the Trump administration has declared war on the gains which were made during the post-World War II period for African Americans and women in general.
The freedom of African people in the U.S. took a series of rebellions and a civil war to bring into existence. The 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution were passed by the Congress in 1865 and 1868 respectively. The 13th Amendment purportedly ended African enslavement, and the 14th granted due process rights to the millions of whom had languished in involuntary servitude for nearly 250 years.
In 1870, the 15th Amendment was passed which ostensibly granted the right to vote for African American men. It would take another half-century in 1920 (19th Amendment) for white women to gain the right to vote on a national level.
However, even as late as the early and mid-1960s, the majority of African Americans still living in the southern U.S., were denied the right to vote. Not only were they denied the right to vote, African Americans, in many instances, could not walk into a restaurant and order a cup of coffee or a meal. African Americans were excluded from hotels and educational institutions based upon the color of their skin.
It would take a mass Civil Rights Movement encompassing demonstrations, civil disobedience and legal challenges to initiate the changes which came into being during the mid-1960s. The MAGA Republicans who argue that Civil Rights legislation is no longer needed and are tantamount to racial preferences granted to the nationally oppressed, the reality is that the gap between African American and white wealth is still widening.
Racist violence is still very much the norm in the U.S. African Americans and Latin Americans remain subjected to disproportionate violence from law-enforcement agencies in both the South and the North. The criminal justice system continues to profile, target and prosecute African Americans and Latin Americans to the extent that they constitute together the majority of those incarcerated in jails and prisons across the country.
If the current trajectory is not reversed, it will be inevitable that further divisions and struggles on a national and class level will escalate. African Americans will be compelled to develop new tactics to meet the current challenges from the far right to place them back into a subservient social status in the U.S.
Other States Seeking to Repeat the Actions of the Tennessee State Assembly
The Supreme Court decision striking down key elements of the Voting Rights Act originated in the state of Louisiana where 30% of the population are African Americans. Already based upon the Supreme Court decision, the scheduled primary for May has been postponed until July in order to take into consideration the new ruling.
At present Congressman Cleo Fields and Troy Carter are the only African Americans representing Louisiana in Congress. Under the current ruling, they could very easily loose his seat leaving African Americans with no representation. There have been only four African Americans from Louisiana in the U.S. Congress since the Reconstruction era.
In Alabama, where a previous court rulings had mandated the creation of another majority African American district, only two are present in the current Congress where under the new ruling could be left without representation. Alabama represented the key state where the Selma Campaign of the mid-1960s created the political atmosphere which prompted the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
South Carolina could also be impacted where Congressman James Clyburn is the only African American representing this conservative southern state. In Virginia, a state supreme court decision has struck down a plan which could have created four additional districts which would benefit Democratic politicians.
Overall, in 2026, the largest number of African Americans ever are serving in the U.S. House and Senate. There are 62 in the House and 5 in the Senate. Consequently, the Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais is designed to severely reduce these numbers.
These developments require militant action on the part of African Americans and their allies not only in the South but across the entire country. The shifting demographic character of the U.S. and the sharpening class divisions is causing panic on the part of many whites.
Within another generation, people of color communities could very well constitute a combined majority-minority country. The rise in poverty will undoubtedly intensify the struggle to organize labor and oppressed people into a formidable force aimed at ending racism and capitalist exploitation.
