voting rights act

May 25, 2023 - A new report from the Movement Advancement Project ranks the states on their risk for election denialism and finds that more than a few states in the South are vulnerable to attempts to overturn the will of the voters. It also highlights policies that can protect elections from deniers.

November 18, 2022 - The Republican wave that many pundits predicted this year didn't happen, but the party captured control of the U.S. House of Representatives thanks to federal and state courts allowing extreme manipulation of voting maps.

October 12, 2022 - For decades, the co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund has led voter organizing campaigns across the South and helped lay the groundwork for Democratic wins in Georgia's 2020 presidential and U.S. Senate elections. She talked with Facing South about mobilizing for the midterms, misconceptions about the South and the region's Black voters, and building a genuine multiracial democracy.

June 8, 2022 - Texas is heading to court to defend new election districts that divide and disempower Black and Latino communities while benefiting the GOP. The districts remain in play for this year's elections, but judges could order new ones before 2024.

April 21, 2022 - Over protests by the state's Black lawmakers, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed his fellow Republicans to adopt a congressional district map that is expected to slash the number of Black representatives for the state. The new map could be challenged in court, but appellate courts have recently sided with the GOP in voting rights cases. 

March 9, 2022 - Mississippi civil rights organizer Fannie Lou Hamer passed away 45 years ago this month. A recent book and documentary examine her life and work amid a pitched national debate over how to teach and think about U.S. racial history.

February 24, 2022 - With federal courts limiting the scope of protections, voting rights advocates are turning to state courts to challenge election districts for violating state constitutional rights. A recent ruling in North Carolina has given hope to voters who've filed similar lawsuits in other Southern states.