voting rights act
June 28, 2021 -
Joan C. Browning of West Virginia took part in the 1961 Freedom Rides challenging segregated transportation in the Jim Crow South, and she recently welcomed the Black Voters Matter Freedom Ride for Voting Rights to Charleston. We're reprinting the full text of her remarks drawing on history to suggest paths to a more just future.
June 10, 2021 -
As in the South of the 19th century, we have a massive group among us willing to throw democracy away in order to assure their ascendancy. With a dominant political party committed to autocracy, we're treading new ground — at least new ground in modern times.
May 21, 2021 -
Republican state legislators across the South are making it harder for voters to cast a ballot. Voting rights groups and local officials are suing over the changes, which they argue will disparately impact voters of color and those with disabilities. But the judges with the final say are mostly Republicans.
April 22, 2021 -
Delayed census results, GOP control of Southern legislatures, and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act could lead to unfair new legislative and congressional election maps across the region, according to a new report from the nonprofit RepresentUs. Voting rights advocates say the solution lies in Congress passing the For the People Act.
February 12, 2021 -
How could such an extremist end up in Congress? Consider Georgia's congressional district map, which like all state congressional and legislative maps is set to be redrawn later this year. A new report out this week finds that Georgia and a handful of other Southern states remain at risk for more extreme partisan gerrymandering.
September 16, 2020 -
In a lawsuit filed by the state NAACP over constitutional amendments passed by a legislature that federal courts found to be racially gerrymandered, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled to uphold them, reversing a lower court's decision. The group is now taking the case to the state Supreme Court.
August 12, 2020 -
A federal appeals court recently overturned a lower court ruling that required a new majority-Black judicial election district in Terrebonne Parish. Only one Black judge has served there, but a white judge was re-elected after donning blackface and a prison jumpsuit for Halloween. The case is part of a broader struggle for judicial elections that are fair to Black voters.
