Voting Rights Act ruling is ‘red meat’ to Republicans in south, says Black lawmaker targeted by gerrymander | Mississippi

U.S. House representative Bennie Thompson said the Supreme Court’s decision effectively striking down the Voting Rights Act (VRA) “is red meat for Republican legislators in the south.”

Conservative lawmakers in Mississippi, where Thompson is both the state’s only Black and its only Democratic representative in Congress, took the opportunity to openly target him, threatening to redraw the second congressional district he represents.

Federal protections originally mandated by the VRA prevented states from engaging in “misconduct” or methods they had previously used to suppress voters — such as, Thompson noted, situations in which Black voters were asked how many bubbles were in a bar of soap. With the high court’s new interpretation of Part 2 of Louisiana v Callais, Thompson said lawmakers “could create an opportunity for people not to be represented or to not vote for the candidate of their choice.”

“Given the hostility about what you’re hearing from state legislators and state elected officials, mischief could arise again,” he said.

It’s a feud Thompson knows well.

On Wednesday, the state’s agriculture commissioner, Andy Gipson, who is running for governor as a Republican, released a statement. long Facebook The post called on the state to redraw boundaries in a way that would hurt Thompson’s electoral chances. Shad White, the state’s comptroller and likely Republican gubernatorial candidate, has posted extensively about Thompson on social media and called for his district, which White said: “gerrymandered”, will be redrawn.

Since Thompson was elected in 1993, his district has been drawn by a majority of Republican lawmakers. That was the last time redrawnAlthough Thompson suggested that GOP lawmakers include Hinds and the rest of Madison county, lawmakers included four additional counties; rural Adams, Amite, Wilkinson and Franklin counties; they were never in the second congressional district; both Thompson were already partially represented.

Today, the state’s second congressional district is about 300 miles long and has no public transportation. To quickly reach every part of his district, Thompson must fly north to Memphis, Tennessee, or west to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“Whatever perceived bullshit that Republican elected officials say, they have to take credit for it,” Thompson said.

Mississippi once had a large number of Black elected officials, more than 100 at the state and local levels. But this happened in the 19th century during Reconstruction, before Jim Crow, when white legislators enacted the law. “Mississippi Plan”, Initiating efforts such as poll taxes, disenfranchisement crimes, and literacy tests to suppress black voters.

Aside from legal disenfranchisement, Black Mississippians faced violent voter intimidation. By 1964 only 6.7% of eligible Black Mississippians They registered to vote. The passage of the VRA in 1965 changed this, and in 1967 Robert G. Clark Jr. was elected the state’s first Black representative since Reconstruction.

“Over that 60-year period, proportionately, we have more Black elected officials in Mississippi than any other state,” Thompson told the Guardian, referring to the political gains following the action. “That’s also because we have more Black people, percentage-wise, in Mississippi.”

Now Mississippi about 38% Black, The state with the highest black population. A large portion of this population is represented in Thompson’s district.

“The Voting Rights Act helped level the playing field for elected officials,” Thompson said. “When you look at the speed at which governors call special sessions, you can imagine that the case for representing all the people is not realistic.”

Immediately following the Louisiana v. Callais decision, governors and other elected officials in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and elsewhere in the South began calling for special sessions to redraw predominantly Black districts. Many were successful.

Republicans in Tennessee eliminated the state’s Black congressional district last week. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new map shortly after the Supreme Court decision was made. Alabama’s Republican majority already has maps pending if the state is allowed to use them.

Mississippi was poised to enter the redistricting fight — Gov. Tate Reeves called a special session to address the state’s supreme court districts — until Reeves reversed his decision Wednesday. Instead, he said he expects state lawmakers to take up the redistricting issue at a later date.

“It’s not a matter of if, but when,” Reeves said, while redrawing the state’s congressional map centering Thompson’s district and calling Thompson’s tenure a “reign of terror.”

Even before Reeves made his comments, Thompson predicted their future and suggested what the actions of Reeves and other Republican lawmakers might mean for Black voters.

“In general, every state that came to the rescue from the south [redraw districts]”The majority of their legislative delegation is made up of Republicans,” he said. “They have publicly stated that it is time to change this. I guess given these statements you can assume that Black representation will decrease in the future.

‘Catalyst of change’

Thompson, 78, was born almost two decades before the VRA came into force. He did so before he could vote when his father died in 1964. The VRA, which provided a provision for people to be federally registered, was what first gave him the right to vote because the local city clerk was not registering Black people.

“My parents were working, they were paying taxes, but their son wasn’t getting the same education as a white kid in this town,” he said. “But that boy, who had a separate and unequal education because of the Voting Rights Act, became mayor of the town. The Voting Rights Act was an opportunity for local citizens to vote for the candidate of their choice.”

Much of the ire Thompson has received from Republicans focuses on the fact that he chaired the Jan. 6 committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters and his decidedly liberal voting record.

“Because I believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion, I’m not even perceived as being Mississippian enough to represent Mississippi and Washington… Every socioeconomic indicator of Mississippi [ranks last]I voted to send us to the bottom. “But for some people who have the power to redistribute, that’s a problem,” he said. “The good thing about running for public office is that it gives people a choice. “When you give people a choice and don’t take it away from them, they will vote in their own self-interest.”

Ultimately, Thompson said, the fight for representative democracy will continue. Southern states are facing legal challenges over their redrawn maps, and voting rights coalitions are working in southern states to mobilize voters.

“This is our moment to organize, strategize and execute. We need to make sure we have all the information we can put together,” he said. “This despicable decision by the U.S. Supreme Court could serve as a catalyst for change. I want to be a part of it, because I know we are a better country than this. I am disappointed when I see state officials in Mississippi trying to return to the dark days of Jim Crow. We plan to resist with every fiber of our bodies to show our opposition.”