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 Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court decision
In today’s Callais decision, the conservative side of the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has declared their allegiance to the white supremacist’s movement, which seeks to return this country to a post reconstruction era where constitutional rights exist only on paper and states are free to construct laws that “appear” race neutral on their face, but prevents Black and Brown people from electing representation that increases their political power and ability to protect and resource their communities.
We should not be fooled by any attempt by SCOTUS to justify this callous decision on alleged “racial progress” in the U.S. because they know it’s a lie. As stated by Justice Kagan in the dissent, the majority claims only to be “updating” our Section 2 law, as though through a few technical tweaks. Ante, at 26, 29, 32. But in fact, those “updates” eviscerate the law, so that it will not remedy even the classic example of vote dilution given above.” Because as we read this decision today, all around the country state legislatures, particularly in the South, are drawing maps that wipe away Black and Brown state and congressional legislative districts that were created and protected by the Voting Rights Act. Even on this day, Florida and Alabama legislatures have announced efforts to change their legislative maps. And this decision will only accelerate efforts by racist state legislators to hurriedly draw maps that look just like the legislative maps looked in the early 1900’s, where no Black legislative representation existed at the local, state, and national level.
Two years ago, Black Voters Matter warned that this current SCOTUS was in on the GOP’s efforts to increase and enshrine white political power not seen in the U.S. since the horrid Dred Scott decision, which declared that the “Black Man had no rights that the White Man was bound to respect. So, just like the US political landscape 1900 U.S., all three branches of government have abandoned the experiment to create a multicultural democracy where all who live here share power and resources. Instead, they are declaring war and broadcasting that they will use every lever of power, policy, the military, and the radical reversal of long standing civil rights law to remake this into a nation where only White people enjoy the full privileges of citizenship found in the constitution and it is extended to others only through the benevolence of them.
But SCOTUS, the Executive and Legislative Branches are not the only ones who get to decide the US’s future. We, the people, also get to decide. Are we going to accept their version of the United States where Black and Marginalized people are disenfranchised and terrorized on this soil with little to no recourse to stop it?
Or are we going to take up the mantle given to us by the 600 people who 66 years ago courageously faced down state troopers to march to Montgomery Alabama to demand voting rights and justice for the state sanctioned murder of a Black man, Jimmy Lee Jackson. Though they didn’t make it due to the brutality of those officers on Bloody Sunday, their courage birthed a movement that created the Voting Rights Act, the very thing this SCOTUS destroyed today.
The answer is not easy because embedded in our DNA is an acute awareness of the stakes. Indeed, Dr. King’s life, who we celebrated in January, and all of the amazing and courageous Black leaders we celebrate, reminds us that the pathway to voting and civil rights in this country, is riddled with arrest, jail, and sometimes violence against those who dare to confront an evil system that refuses to acknowledge our humanity.
But the outcome is certain if we dare to take this path and abolish what is wrong, and create something new that corrects, empowers, and shifts power. And we at Black Voters Matter will not stop, with or without the tool of the Voting Rights Act; we will fight for racial justice in this country. We also know that if we, together, take this path armed with our collective intelligence, different faiths, culture, love, hope, determination and courage, we will create a new country, where we all share power and resources. A new country where our rights, which are given to us by our creator, are not simple acts of legislation that can be taken away by a rogue court, president, congress, or state government. A U.S. where the governing constitution will permanently guarantee representation for Black and other Marginalized people in every legislative body at every level of government. Together, we will craft and fight for a new constitution that will limit judicial lifetime appointments and robustly outline our human rights in a clear and specific way where no one in power can misinterpret or change the laws. The Constitution we create will put people over property, eliminate outdated legislative frameworks, and expand our rights to education, housing, food, healthcare, economics, environmental justice, and more political parties will ensure proportional representation so these rights come to pass.
We will do this, and our multicultural vision of shared power for the US will prevail. So yes today, this decision joins a chorus of bad actions from people who desire to carry forth a legacy of harming people. But also on this day, the most important weapon that has always been underestimated but effective as hell arises: the power of the people.
Join Us:
- In fighting for state voting rights acts and federal legislation, that gives more power and more immediate reprieve.
- At mass protest and boycotts demanding change
- Voting in upcoming elections where we will remove white supremacist from elected offices at every level of government.
- Visualizing and reimagining a new nation that is governed by a system of care that transforms and revolutionizes city and county charters, state constitutions, and a federal constitution that creates the society we desire and deserve.
Cause at the end of the day, we got us and that is why we will win.