By Abayomi Azikiwe
For several weeks Democratic lawmakers within the State of Texas have been waging a political struggle to halt a redistricting plan which would effectively disenfranchise millions of African American voters.
These plans have been long underway in various states throughout the South, which played a key role in the outcome of the 2024 national elections.
Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the racial composition of the House of Representatives and Senate in Washington D.C. has seen a slight shift in greater representation among Black and Brown communities. Nonetheless, with the growing population of People of Color in the United States, it has stoked fear among many whites who can foresee an electorate which could draft bills and enact policies that move toward genuine equality and self-determination for the nationally oppressed.
The administration of President Donald Trump has made no secret of its contempt for fundamental bourgeois democratic norms. More importantly, the institutional racism which has characterized the U.S. since its inception has only been curtailed as a result of mass actions, legal challenges, boycotts, strikes and urban rebellions.
By changing district boundaries to benefit conservative white voters and purging the electoral rolls of African Americans and Latin American peoples, the racists believe they can maintain political dominance in perpetuity. This scheme to engage in massive disenfranchisement throughout the U.S. is inextricably linked with the so-called “crackdown on illegal immigration” aimed specifically towards barring people from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
The efforts to deport millions from the U.S., restrict the ability of oppressed peoples to vote while deploying federalized National Guard units and Marines into urban areas which tend to vote for Democratic candidates, are all designed to fulfill the mandate of “Making America Great Again.” When was America ever great: was it doing the period of forced removals and genocide against the Indigenous Native people; the kidnapping and mass importation of Africans for the purpose of chattel slavery; or was it during the period of the Fugitive Slave Acts, the Civil War and failed Reconstruction?
With the failure of Federal Reconstruction, African Americans were relegated to a status of legalized segregation, tenant farming, peonage, unjust imprisonment and lynching. Texas was considered one of the most racist and repressive states where African Americans and Mexicans were treated as second class or noncitizens by the ruling class.
It would take nearly a century for the Supreme Court to outlaw segregation in public education in the Brown v. Topeka ruling of May 1954. Later a series of mass actions such as boycotts, civil disobedience and demonstrations would lead to the passage of Civil Rights legislation in 1957, 1964, 1965 and 1968. The enactment of affirmative action programs created opportunities for African Americans, Latin Americans, Indigenous people and women to enter higher educational institutions and previously restricted categories within the labor market.
These advancements are under attack by the current White House and Congress. The events in Texas over the last several months are clear reflections of the campaigns to reverse the gains of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s through the 1970s.
Texas Scheme Facing Legal Challenges
In addition to the debates initiated by the Democratic Texas lawmakers and their act of civil disobedience by leaving the state to deny the Republicans a quorum, a lawsuit in federal district court has been filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This legal claim is seeking an injunction to halt the redistricting scheme passed after the Democratic politicians returned to the State.
A report published by the Guardian newspaper on the recently filed legal action emphasized that:
“The lawsuit, joined by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, names Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, and secretary of state, Jane Nelson, as defendants. It asks a federal judge for a preliminary injunction preventing the use of the redrawn maps, arguing that the redistricting violates the U.S. constitution by improperly reducing the power of voters of color. It also argues that the maps violate section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law by former Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas has already been severely weakened since 2013 when the Supreme Court ruling in the Shelby v. Holder case originating in Alabama nullified the enforcement provisions of the legislation. The Voting Rights Act was passed in the aftermath of the Selma Campaign of 1963-1965 which culminated in the march to the Alabama State Capitol.
African Americans were systematically excluded from voting in many of the Southern states from the period of the late 1870s until the 1960s. Poll taxes and “literacy tests” were utilized to deny registration to Black people under the guise that they were not “qualified” to vote.
Moreover, the ultimate mechanism which enforced the disenfranchisement of African Americans was racial terrorism and brute state power. Thousands of people lost their lives from the late 19th century to the 1960s for challenging the restrictive electoral policies which prevailed throughout the South where the majority of African Americans resided.
Gary Bledsoe, the president of the Texas NAACP, was quoted in the same above-mentioned article saying:
“We now see just how far extremist leaders are willing to go to push African Americans back toward a time when we were denied full personhood and equal rights. We call on Texans of every background to recognize the dangers of this moment. Our democracy depends on ensuring that every person is counted fully, valued equally and represented fairly. We are prepared to fight this injustice at every level. Our future depends on it.”
This sentiment by the Texas NAACP is being echoed around the country. African Americans and their organizations view the attacks on voting rights as an important element within the MAGA agenda to reverse the historical trajectory of the U.S. Already there is disproportionate representation of African Americans and Latin Americans in the jails and prisons in the U.S. A renewed systematic denial of voting rights aimed at excluding people from the political system can only result in the heightening of national oppression and economic exploitation.
These policy imperatives related to the suppression of African American and Latin American voters are part and parcel of the neo-fascist agenda of the White House and the majority forces in both Houses of Congress. The denial of voting rights along with the militarization of the country which includes the accelerated recruitment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents; the deployment of Federalized National Guard units into Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles along with the dispatching of Marines, are all designed to enhance the repressive apparatus of the state.
A statement from the National NAACP President Derrick Johnson in Baltimore emphasized the historical significance of the battle being waged in Texas, noting:
“The state of Texas is only 40% white, but white voters control over 73% of the state’s congressional seats. It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
Although it is of paramount importance that African Americans and other oppressed communities fight for their rights to participate fully in the political system, this struggle must be waged on an independent level. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has failed to uphold the civil rights of African Americans. Under the former administration of President Joe Biden, the White House and Congress failed to pass numerous bills which they pledged to do during the 2020 election campaign.
The promised passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act never materialized under the Biden administration. Consequently, the struggle to restore voting rights for the African American people and their allies must be led by these communities which have the most to gain from these efforts.
Other States Are Facing the Same Problems
There are cases still pending in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama which are centered around redistricting. In Mississippi, where the federal court ordered the drawing of another Congressional district to compensate for the lack of African American representation, the issue is being appealed once again by state officials to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court will hear a case in October on whether the redrawing of electoral districts in line with the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana is constitutional under the 14th and 15th Amendments. This state is also dominated by the Republican Party aligned with Trump.
An outcome in this case which upholds the Republican Party’s position in Louisiana could impact other states such as Alabama where the Supreme Court agreed that a new district must be drawn to ensure greater representation for African Americans. Despite the large numbers of African Americans living in these southern states, they continue to lack adequate political representation.
These legal challenges to disenfranchisement should be bolstered with mass actions led by the African American people and their allies. The current composition of the White House, Congress, the federal and supreme courts cannot be relied upon to preserve the voting rights of the nationally oppressed.
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