Redistricting in Alabama: America’s Debate on How to Represent its Constituents
Black residents in Alabama and across the United States have continually faced discrimination when trying to vote. Despite Black men and women receiving the right to vote in 1870 because of the 15th Amendment and 1965 because of the passage of the Voting Right Act, respectively, racist
structures have remained engrained in voting policy. These systems made voting more difficult, or impossible–even today. While laws that intend to protect Black voters have been established, other policies continue to harm them. These structures ultimately threaten Black individuals’ existence within American democracy.
This week is no different: Alabama’s congressional voting map was found to have violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This past week, it was challenged to better represent their Black constituents by redrawing Alabama’s congressional map. The Supreme Court has required Alabama to create a second majority-Black congressional district. Alabama legislators were required to revise their Congressional district map by July 21, 2023.
What is significant about redistricting?
Redistricting occurs every 10 years based on data obtained from the census. It determines the number of seats each state has in Congress. Especially when there is a narrow margin between Democrats and Republicans, redistricting before the 2024 Presidential Election may impact who has control of the house. Because a majority of Black voters in Alabama are Democrats,
Republicans fear that a congressperson will lose their seat.
Redistricting has the potential to heighten “political polarization by making elections less competitive” because the minority party has little chance of electing their candidate of choice. In Alabama’s case, the Supreme Court decision attempts to make a congressional seat more competitive. When the demographics of a district change, an individual’s voting power changes too.
Alabama in National Spotlight
On June 8, 2023, the 5 – 4 Supreme Court decision, Allen v. Milligan ruled that Alabama had “diluted the power of Black voters” because of their congressional district map. They were drawn after the results of the 2020 census which found that 27 percent of Alabama’s population is Black. However, the Congressional boundaries drawn only created one majority-Black district, where approximately 57 percent of the population is Black. One-third of eligible Black voters reside in District 7, one of seven of
Alabama’s congressional districts. Alabama’s seventh district is reliably Democratic, as 80 percent of Black voters in Alabama are Democrats.
Allen v. Milligan’s case argued that the congressional map Alabama’s Governor Kay Ivey approved in 2021 violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Acts. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act makes racial discrimination in the voting process illegal. It states, “No voting qualification to voting, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State…in a manner which results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen…to vote on account of race or color.”
Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL-07) currently serves Alabama’s seventh district. She is the first Black woman elected to the Alabama Congressional delegation and the only Democratic congressperson to represent the state. She recognized how the Supreme Court decision was critical for not just individuals from Alabama, but a win for historically marginalized voters nationwide.
To negotiate the new map, legislators in Alabama held a special session this week. On July 19, just two days before the deadline, a new map passed with a 74-27 vote in the Republican-majority Alabama House of Representatives. The new Congressional District has increased the percentage of Black voters from 30 to 42.5 percent. The Senate bill, which passed 24-8, increased the Black voter population represented in the map by eight percent.
The new map has not created a second majority-Black district, despite the Supreme Court mandate. FiveThirtyEight notes, however, that “there’s no numerical stand or threshold for this, for example, a solidly Democratic district that is 48 percent Black could still reliably elect Black voters’ preferred candidate…”. It is unclear if the Supreme Court will approve the map.
Democrats, including State Representative Barbara Drummond (D), are outraged over the new map because it did not create a majority-Black district. She said to The Washington Post that “This is really a slap in the face not only to Black Alabamians but to the Supreme Court.” Republicans like Representative Chris Pringle (R) feel as though the new map does meet the Supreme Court Requirements because a Democrat or Republican could win in the new district.
What led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
Prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, systemic racism while voting was more apparent, especially in the South. Some states, including Alabama, required literacy tests, where individuals were tested on their ability to extrapolate information from the U.S. Constitution. Mistakes on the test would result in the inability to register to vote. Additionally, states enforced poll taxes requiring that individuals pay to cast their ballots. According to the National Museum of African American History & Culture, in Dallas County, Alabama, the poll tax was $3 dollars in 1966, which is equivalent to approximately $28.25 today. Policies like these prevented Black individuals from voting because they did not have access to quality education and were more likely to be part of a lower socioeconomic class.
Moreover, social intimidation tactics and violence were used to dissuade Black voters. For example, members of the Ku Klux Klan were present at polling sites, with the goal of preventing Black registered voters from casting their ballots.
Peace Met with Violence
On March 7, 1965, now known as “Bloody Sunday,” was one of many protests challenging the unfair conditions Black individuals faced while voting. In Selma, Alabama, 600 activists marched attempting to reach the state capital in Montgomery. They were protesting the killing of Jimmy Lee Jackson by a state trooper and their lack of voting rights. Jackson, among other civil rights activists, had convened earlier that year to show solidarity for an unjust arrest. But their peaceful march was met by violence from Alabama State Troopers. Jackson died after seeking refuge from violence and while shielding his mother from being beaten.
The peaceful protesters were met with violence. 150 State troopers attacked the protesters using tear gas and billy clubs while on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Many were left injured, including activist and former Congressman John Lewis, who assisted in leading the march.
Amid the national spotlight on voting reform following the march, among other movements, President Lyndon B. Johnson enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ten days later. This act intended to protect Black people’s rights to vote is protected under the 15th Amendment of the Constitution. It outlawed several policies that made voting more difficult for Black Americans, including literacy tests and discrimination that occurred in Alabama. The passage of this act was essential in giving Black women the right to vote. Alabama violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 2023 is a reminder of how the United States continues to grapple with the protection of the Black peoples’ rights.
What’s Next?
Alabama is not the only state that is required to redraw its district boundaries. Louisiana similarly violated the Voting Rights Act and South Carolina must also “redraw its congressional map after finding that the configuration of one district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”
With the 2024 Election around the corner, legal battles will continue to play out, perhaps with race as its main underlying factor. Conservative states continue to limit the protections the Voting Rights Act created, likely at the expense of marginalized communities.
Ten Further Readings:
Featured in the article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/us/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-alabama.html
More about Alabama:
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/26/1026457264/1965-voting-rights-act-supreme-court-john-lewishttps://www.axios.com/2023/07/17/alabama-congressional-map-black-votershttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/us/politics/alabama-congressional-map-redistricting.html
About the Supreme Court Decision:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1086_1co6.pdf
On Redistricting:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/redistricting-6-states-affect-controls-congress/story?id=101011397
On Voting Rights:
https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws