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Friend, The march for voting rights started in Alabama. It is where John Lewis and other civil rights foot soldiers faced violence and death to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a heroic act that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The SPLC was founded in Montgomery and has spent more than 50 years fighting to protect and preserve voting rights in Alabama and beyond. Yesterday, SPLC President and CEO Margaret Huang spoke outside the Supreme Court to urge the justices to uphold a district court’s decision to strike down Alabama’s racially gerrymandered political maps. The case before the Supreme Court, Merrill v. Milligan, is not just about Alabama’s racially gerrymandered congressional maps. If the Supreme Court reverses the district court’s decision, Black Alabamians will be denied an equal opportunity to elect congressional candidates they choose. This case was brought on behalf of Greater Birmingham Ministries, Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, and several individuals who are being represented by the SPLC and our allies. All of those represented face disenfranchisement and vote suppression under Alabama’s oppressive system of racial gerrymandering. Through Milligan, forces acting against our democracy are challenging Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. They are targeting one of our best defenses against racial gerrymanders that deny communities of color fair representation in government. Huang called on the Supreme Court to protect our democracy from one of the strongest efforts to take voting rights from communities of color since the Voting Rights Act was signed into law nearly 60 years ago. And, she urged each of us to play our part in protecting our democracy by calling out voter suppression wherever we see it, standing against politicians who wish to strip away our democracy and exercising our fundamental right to vote at every opportunity. This case will determine how we will honor our past and how we will leave our society for future generations. We will continue our fight give all people fair and access to the ballot box and ensure their vote is counted both through the courts and outside the courts. Right now, the best way to defend our voting rights is by mobilizing our communities to make their voices heard and by advocating for federal legislation to restore and enshrine voter protections. In solidarity, Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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