Lewis, the longtime Georgia congressmember and civil rights icon who died in 2020, deeply believed in voting and truthful illustration because the bedrock of racial justice, and of justice for all. Alarmed by the GOP assaults on voting and elections, which started in earnest after the Supreme Court docket tossed out a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act greater than a decade in the past, Lewis fought again. The Voting Rights Development Act, first launched and co-sponsored by Lewis in 2015 (later renamed for Lewis after his dying), sought to revive the protections, generally known as preclearance, lower from the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It additionally sought to ban gerrymandering — the follow of carving up congressional districts in a manner that benefits one political celebration or group. Although at all times a bipartisan follow, gerrymandering was used traditionally, mainly within the South, to suppress or dilute the voting energy of Black individuals and different individuals of colour and deny them illustration of their selection. Whereas nonetheless in play, Lewis’ invoice has but to make it into regulation after a number of makes an attempt to beat opposition from Republicans, and some Democrats.
Black help is vital. As a result of the GOP gerrymandering spree Prop. 50 is designed to offset is greater than only a energy seize; at its core, it’s a critical undermining of racial justice that took generations to construct. It’s no accident that the redrawn maps in Texas redistribute Black illustration of considerably Black districts; among the many losers are distinguished Black Democrats, together with Rep. Jasmine Crockett, recognized for talking out towards Trump and the GOP in movies that incessantly go viral, and the equally outspoken Rep. Al Inexperienced.
Numerous Black Californians, together with these whose households arrived throughout the Nice Migration final century, have roots in Texas; they embody State Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, considered one of many members of the Legislative Black Caucus who helps the proposition. For a lot of Black individuals the gerrymandering battle is just not solely private and political, however deeply rooted in historical past. At stake isn’t just reining in Trumpian overreach, however thwarting white supremacy and preserving the civil rights features individuals like Lewis fought laborious for and in some instances died for (Lewis himself nearly met his finish on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, crushed severely by police as he and others tried to march to Selma for voting rights.)
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Congressmember Lateefah Simon, who represents elements of the Bay Space, stated the brand new Texas map recollects the lack of Black voting rights and illustration within the South that occurred after Emancipation. The potential lack of civil rights and the erosion of democracy can be the message that Black figures past California, together with former president Barack Obama and former legal professional basic Eric Holder, are sending in their very own help of Prop. 50. The endorsement from Holder is very important provided that he’s spent years preventing the discriminatory results of gerrymandering as chairman of the Nationwide Democratic Redistricting Committee. However he’s stated the second leaves him, and the nation, no selection.
Trena Turner, a pastor and a member of California’s impartial redistricting fee in 2020, got here to the identical conclusion. In a commentary for CalMatters final month, Turner wrote that the GOP risk needs to be met in actual time, and that certainly known as for assembly fireplace with fireplace. This doesn’t imply that supporters of Prop. 50 turn into complicit in weakening democracy, as some opponents of the measure have claimed. Opponents additionally warn that Prop. 50 will disempower Black voters in some elements of the state, although that’s refuted by a number of analyses of the measure, together with one by the nonpartisan Public Coverage Institute of California. For Turner and others, the large image is probably the most pressing. “To stand by and allow more of the same is to surrender to authoritarianism in slow motion,” Turner wrote. “The safeguards we once believed would protect us simply aren’t holding” (safeguards that embody the Voting Rights Act that’s prone to be dismantled fully by the Supreme Court docket within the coming months). Turner added: “If reversing course is what it takes to protect representation, equity and democracy itself, then we must act.”
