'This is not democracy': voting rights activists shocked by speed of US states moving to stifle Black voters

[marmar]

{Guardian) The reaction speed of southern states to the US supreme court’s decision last week in Louisiana v Callais has been breathtaking for voting rights activists.

One week after Callais, Louisiana’s governor has ordered the state’s ongoing congressional election to be set aside while state lawmakers redraw maps to eliminate a Democratic-majority – that is, a Black-majority – seat covering Baton Rouge.

Alabama’s Republican-majority legislature is drafting legislation in a special session that will allow it to set aside the results of a completed primary later this year if courts lift an injunction on its redistricting.

Florida was amid a special redistricting session as the ruling was handed down, passing a congressional map for 28 districts that packs Black and brown voters into four districts on the south Florida coast and Orlando, eliminating every other Democratic majority.

....(snip)....

“What’s happening right now is probably the swiftest disenfranchisement of Black folks since Reconstruction, due to disenfranchisement by racist gerrymandering. And they will lie and say that it’s for political purposes,” said Democratic state representative Justin Pearson of Tennessee, a Memphis legislator running for a congressional district blown into pieces by Republican lawmakers. “They cracked it into three. The district stretches hundreds of miles … it’s completely diluted in thirds almost to the percentage. It’s surgical, how they remove the possibility of Black participation.” ...............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/08/voting-rights-activists-louisiana-callais-black-voters

[JI7]

1. People shouldn't be shocked. This is the main reason people

supported Trump.

[31st Street Bridge]

2. I call on the NFL and NBA to leave Tennessee

Right now, the government is the mortal enemy of freedom.

[Lovie777]

3. Oh come on ................

that is the intent, from what I read, the decision by the 6 was made back in October 2025, but they waited right before the 2026 election to make it legal to disenfranchise, dilute representation of Black Americans.

[magicarpet]

4. The USSC issued a license for the racists to diminish, dilute, and disregard the will,..

.... and the power of Liberal, Black and Hispanic voters. Their dream for a Fascistic Theocracy is rapidly coming to fruition.

[Gum Logger]

5. Racist dogs

[Kid Berwyn]

6. I'd also appreciate similar expressions of shock from political leaders.

Up and down the board, across party lines, and from the very first time some NAZI SOB mentioned “DEI” in a disparaging way.