Alabama Redraws Map, Pushing Black Voters Into New Districts

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama voters are casting ballots again in a special primary for four congressional districts after the state legislature implemented a new map designed to favor Republican candidates.

The redistricting stems from an April Supreme Court ruling in a Louisiana case. The court determined that drawing district lines based on race is unconstitutional but allowed partisan gerrymandering, giving states broad leeway to reshape electoral maps.

In Lowndes County, residents Willie Dixon and Mary Gatson found themselves moved from the 7th Congressional District to the 2nd under the new lines. Both said the change would scatter Black voters and suppress turnout.

"Create enough chaos, people will give up and go home," Dixon said. Gatson said, "I think it's very inappropriate. It's the wrong time."

Lowndes County sits along the Selma-to-Montgomery march route, the civil rights corridor that led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Black residents make up more than a quarter of Alabama's population. The state's congressional delegation currently includes two Black Democrats and five white Republicans.

Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell, one of those two Black members, criticized the court's position. She called it "unacceptable that we are living in an era where the Supreme Court has said that as long as a state articulates a legitimate partisan reason for redrawing a map or drawing a map that it's OK, even if it discriminates against minorities."

The new map puts Rep. Shomari Figures, the delegation's other Black member, on difficult electoral footing. Figures represents the 2nd District, which was redrawn significantly under the new lines.

Figures won his seat in 2024 after Black voters sued Alabama and federal courts ruled the previous congressional map discriminatory. Judges created a new district anchored by the majority-Black city of Mobile to ensure fair representation. The current redistricting cuts against that court-ordered remedy.

Republicans in the state legislature used the new map to consolidate their hold on Alabama's congressional delegation, diluting the voting strength of Black residents in the process.

"Create enough chaos, people will give up and go home," Dixon said. Gatson said, "I think it's very inappropriate. It's the wrong time."

Lowndes County sits along the Selma-to-Montgomery march route, the civil rights corridor that led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Black residents make up more than a quarter of Alabama's population. The state's congressional delegation currently includes two Black Democrats and five white Republicans.

The new map puts Rep. Shomari Figures, the delegation's other Black member, on difficult electoral footing. Figures represents the 2nd District, which was redrawn significantly under the new lines.

Republicans in the state legislature used the new map to consolidate their hold on Alabama's congressional delegation, diluting the voting strength of Black residents in the process.