U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) whose district spans parts of Los Angeles County, joined fellow CBC member U.S. Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA-2) for a May 21 briefing with Black media outlets in California.
The lawmakers highlighted what they describe as a mounting threat to Black political represen-tation nationwide resulting from an April 29 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened key protec-tions under the federal Voting Rights Act.
Kamlager-Dove and Carter warned that the decision, which narrowed the role of race in redistricting, is already reshaping congressional districts across the South and undermining Black voters’ ability to elect candidates of their choice across the country.
“While we are a super blue state, we have far to go when it comes to Black representation, we tend to take that for granted,” Kamlager-Dove said of California, noting that the Golden State has the fifth largest Black population in the country and only has three Black members of Congress.
“While I support building coalitions, we have to make sure that as a Black community we are not yielding our power,” she added.
Calling the fight “not unique to the South,” Carter urged Black communities nationwide to recognize the broader implications of the legal and political battles unfolding in Southern legisla-tures and courtrooms. He compared the effort to a “wildfire” that could spread if left unchecked.
The Supreme Court ruling centers on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the portion of the law that prohibits voting systems or district maps that dilute the voting strength of racial minorities. For decades, Section 2 allowed civil rights groups to challenge district maps that weakened Black political representation even when lawmakers did not openly state discrimina-tory intent.
Now, advocates fear that standard has funda-mentally changed.
“You have to have smoking gun evidence,” said Mitchell Brown, senior voting rights counsel at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, during a recent media briefing hosted by American Com-munity Media on May 15. “Legislators are not going to say the quiet part out loud.”
