Jim Crow was on the ash heap of history. Then came the Roberts court

That’s just the opening act.

Official response and confirmed impact

Up to 140 Black- and Hispanic-majority state legislative districts could also be erased—not to mention seats on city councils, school boards, and some county commissions.

Generally, few white voters in the South will cast a ballot for a Black candidate, so losing these districts will effectively wipe out Black power at every level of politics.

Black people there will still technically have the right to vote, but no real ability to elect candidates they support and who represent their communities.

Jim Crow lasted for nearly a century.

It took the full force of the civil rights movement, from boycotts to marches and laws like the 1965 VRA, to create a Second Reconstruction, meant to redeem the squandered promise of the first.

Today, there are more than 10,000 Black elected officials throughout the country, far surpassing the numbers following the Civil War.

Incident background

The VRA made America a truly multiracial democracy for the first time in its history.