The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments today in an Alabama redistricting case that could further weaken the Voting Rights Act. Here’s a preview. montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/pol… #alpolitics
Black activists had fought Alabama’s Jim Crow voting restrictions for more than 20 years when the Voting Rights Act was signed in August 1965. At the time, about 112K Black Alabamians were registered to vote. By April 1966, the number had doubled to 228K. montgomeryadvertiser.com/in-depth/news/…
The surge in Black voter registration led Gov. George Wallace to abruptly switch his focus to communism. “The reason he’s been talking about communism,” said Attorney General Richmond Flowers, a rival, “is that there aren’t 228,000 registered Communists in Alabama.”
Black Alabamians fought the state’s 1901 Constitution, which stole the vote from Blacks and poor whites. In 1902, postal worker Jackson Giles took the state to the US Supreme Court. Oliver Wendell Holmes smugly concluded SCOTUS couldn’t do anything. montgomeryadvertiser.com/in-depth/news/…
In 1944, Alabama authorities arrested and disbarred attorney Arthur Madison for trying to register Montgomery voters. Madison and E.D. Nixon bravely pushed forward. The following year, Rosa Parks asked them to accompany her when she registered. montgomeryadvertiser.com/in-depth/news/…
These brave men and women managed to push back to an extent against disenfranchisement. But the Voting Rights did in eight months what they had tried to do for decades. #alpolitics
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