The Supreme Court may have gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but Black voters aren’t taking the ruling sitting down. This weekend, voters gathered in Alabama for the All Roads Lead to the South National Day of Action to speak out against the ruling and to begin organizing to keep fighting.
After a prayer service at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Selma, Ala, protestors and faith leaders marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for an afternoon rally at the state capital building in Montgomery. Speakers at the rally included Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, and leaders and representatives of other national civil rights, advocacy, and faith-based organizations.
The rally was high energy, but also resolute and focused. Attendees were ready to channel their fury about the Supreme Court ruling into the voting booths for November’s midterm elections, to deliver a decisive victory that’s impossible for conservative lawmakers to rig through redistricting.
Asad Williams isn’t able to legally vote yet at age 15, but he was still prepared to make his voice heard. He attended the protest from Huntsville, Ala. with his father and his younger brother.
“I came out here to support my people and stop the prejudice in the law from people who are trying to redistrict our cities to weaken out votes,” Williams told The Root. “I can’t really stand by and see our people get our power taken away from us. I want to stand with my people, and support them to represent our culture.”
Williams said that he wasn’t surprised when he learned of the Supreme Court’s decision, but that he’s been intentional about encouraging his loved ones to be strong despite the upsetting news.
“It’s been a recurrence in our history, when they try to take the power from us. Black power is powerful, it’s beautiful, it’s what holds our country together,” he said. “It’s not fair, but I try to tell our friends and family that we always gotta support each other, hold ourselves above water, and be strong.”
Camille Anderson-Finley, a recent transplant to Montgomery, mirrored Williams’ urgency to get involved.
“I knew it was a necessity that I be here because of all that’s taking place,” said Anderson-Finley, 61, in a conversation with The Root. “That I now live in the home of the civil rights movement, to be so close and not attend just didn’t make sense. There’s too much at stake for me not to be here.”
Birmingham protestor Sylvia Swayne, 28, stressed the need for solidarity between communities in this cause for voting rights. Swayne is a trans white woman, and said that Black people shouldn’t be the only ones standing up to fight.
“The Black vote is under attack, and if we aren’t all free, none of us are free. It’s important as a member of the trans community that we show up for Black voters and work together to move Alabama forward,” Swayne said, adding that she plans to attend another rally next week.
“… This is a playbook that has been used before,” she continued. “We know what they try to do when they separate us to take away power. But I insist that young people step up and show up, vote on Tuesday [during the primaries], and be in solidarity. It’s now or never.”
The rally in Alabama is the centerpiece of more than 50 associated events that are included on a map on All Roads Lead To the South’s website. Organizers say there were 5,000 registrants, more than 600 people scheduled to gather in Montgomery, and 275-plus partner organizations.
The National Day of Action in Alabama was a callback to the nonviolent marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, which helped lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year. The Supreme Court’s latest ruling on Louisiana v. Callais functionally gutted the Act by striking down Louisiana’s addition of a second Black majority voting district as unconstitutional gerrymandering. Experts say that the court’s decision to disallow race as a consideration for how districts are drawn will denigrate the power of the Black vote, and result in decreased Black representation in Congress.
