Cliff Albright and LaTosha Brown, Co-Founders of Black Voters Matter and April England-Albright, National Legal Director of Black Voters Matter issue this statement following the SCOTUS decision in Alexander v. SC NAACP
GEORGIA – Yesterday the Supreme Court failed Black voters in South Carolina. We are deeply disturbed by the Supreme Court’s decision in Alexander v. SC NAACP that allowed the state to continue to deny thousands of Black voters in Congressional District 1 equal access to the ballot box. SCOTUS’s failure to uphold the lower court ruling and protect the rights of Black voters in South Carolina is just another example of how right-wing conservatives are diligently working on all levels to weaken the voting power of Black and Brown voters within the state. The decision is an extreme miscarriage of Justice and Justice Kagan’s correctly stated in her dissent, “the majority only gets where it does by ‘ignoring and minimizing’ clear evidence that South Carolina racially gerrymandered its map.
This decision undermines the voices of Black voters who want to see change in the state and this ruling presents another barrier to that progress. Black voters deserve to be heard and we will continue to Fight Back against unfair maps and policymakers who continue to uphold the legacy and impact of white supremacy not only in South Carolina but across the South.
Today’s decision, while disturbing, was not surprising – we’ve seen this many times before. For decades Black voters have been the target of voter suppression tactics like unfair maps, mass purges of voter rolls, and oppressive laws that make it harder to vote, but we didn’t back down then and we won’t back down now. Along with our local and national partners, We Fight Back at the ballot box, in the courtroom, and in the legislature until America truly becomes the type of democracy where all who live in its borders have truly proportional political representation.
