LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Alabama's legislature is about to approve congressional districts that favor Republicans. It's one of the first Southern states to rush to change congressional maps after last week's Supreme Court ruling that removed race as a consideration for drawing district lines. Civil rights activists are fighting back as NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Protesters have descended on the Alabama statehouse in Montgomery this week as lawmakers meet in a special session designed to change the state's political power structure.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: Let's go. I ain't going let...
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #1: (Singing) Going let it turn me around, turn me around, turn me around.
ELLIOTT: Activists are organizing across the region to fight the redistricting frenzy after the Supreme Court stripped a key voting rights protection. Shayla Mitchell is with the Alabama Election Protection Coalition.
SHAYLA MITCHELL: We are seeing a movement across the Deep South, a coordinated effort to push anti-Blackness and white supremacy through the redistricting of maps. Redistricting is not new. It has been happening since the beginning of democracy, but now they're making an effort to totally erase the voices of Black and brown communities.
ELLIOTT: Inside, the Alabama House debated a bill to use maps drawn in 2023 that were struck down by federal courts for discriminating against Black voters. A three-judge panel imposed a new map that resulted in the state getting a second Black Democrat in Congress out of seven seats. Republican state Representative Chris Pringle is sponsoring the legislation that reverts to the old map. During the debate, he said it would give the GOP an advantage.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHRIS PRINGLE: I believe the Republicans run quality candidates and turn out that it's the opportunity for the Republicans to win all seven districts if they run good candidates.
ELLIOTT: Pringle rejected Democratic Representative Kenyatte Hassell's argument that the goal is to unconstitutionally disenfranchise Black voters.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRINGLE: The Blacks still have the right to vote. We're not infringing on the right for them to go on the voting place and cast a ballot.
KENYATTE HASSELL: But you'd dilute it. You would be diluting that vote.
PRINGLE: Well, they still have the right to vote. They're still able to go vote. We're not taking that away.
HASSELL: But it is unconstitutional to dilute that vote, right?
PRINGLE: It's - there - we're not infringing on their right to go to the polls and vote.
ELLIOTT: Other than Pringle, no Republicans defended the bill, which passed the House on a party-line vote. Afterwards, the GOP caucus issued a statement saying, quote, "Alabama House Republicans are doing our part to ensure Congress stays red." The legislation is now before the Alabama Senate, where activists protested near the chamber and refused orders from security to move.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: OK. No, please. No, no, no, no. Please, if you all would, go to the - sir.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Singing) We shall not...
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #2: (Singing) We shall not be moved.
ELLIOTT: Organizer Eric Hall with the Birmingham Chapter of Black Lives Matter says a new generation is prepared to step up.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ERIC HALL: We will not go back to a place where our lives were not valued, to a place where our voting rights were not respected. And so we're here to send a strong message and say that we will not, we will not, we are not going back.
ELLIOTT: Mildred Mitchell Bennett (ph) was a foot soldier in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. She says what they gained back then is under attack now.
MILDRED MITCHELL BENNETT: I'm tired, and I will not go back. I fought the fight marching. I'm not going back.
ELLIOTT: Tornado warnings and flooding in the statehouse cut debate short Wednesday night, but the Republican supermajority in the Alabama legislature has the votes to push through their congressional plan by Friday.
Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Montgomery. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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