By Antjuan Seawright, Columnist
When President Lyndon Jonson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, the weight of disenfranchisement was removed from the chest of every Black American and, for the first time since reconstruction, the true air of liberty started to fill our lungs as we began to breathe as free Americans.
Unfortunately, that celebration was short lived because as soon as we started breathing, they got to work suffocating us all over again and they used the Supreme Court to do it.
In 1980, the Supreme Court, flooded with Nixon appointees, ruled in Mobile v. Bolden that it was okay for the good old boys to discriminate against and disenfranchise Black voters in clear violation of the Voting Rights Act…as long as they didn’t mean to. In other words, you can do everything in your power to keep Black folks from exercising their most basic rights to vote. As long as you pretend that you pretend that wasn’t your intent, like Republicans have been doing with Voter ID laws ever since, and like they’re doing with the SAVE Act right now, then it’s okay.
Then, in 2013, we saw Shelby County v. Holder, where Chief Justice John Roberts tried to convince us that racism no longer existed when he led his right-wing court to overturn one of the Voting Rights Act’s chief provisions, forcing states with histories of racial discrimination to get preclearance from the Department of Justice before making any changes to their voting laws or practices.
Wait, that’s not exactly right. They ruled that striking down preclearance was a bridge too far. So instead they got rid of the formula that determined whether or not you were subject to preclearance. As a result, preclearance is still there but no one has to do it.
Of course, that decision led to an avalanche of new Voter ID laws, early voting cuts, voter roll purges and more. In fact, just five years after the decision, officials had closed 1,000 polling places, most of them in Black counties.
Finally, in what Rev. Al Sharpton called a “bullet in the heart of the voting rights movement,” Trump’s court ruled in Louisiana v. Callais saying that Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District relied too heavily on race and opening the door for Republican legislatures across the nation to eliminate majority-Black districts everywhere and shut Black voices out of Congress for a generation.
Let’s be clear. On August 6, 1965, our government said that Black representation matters. It said that our voices had been silenced for far too long and it was time that we were heard. They said that Black Americans are real Americans and it enshrined that sentiment into law by signing the Voting Rights Act.
On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court said “just kidding” and wiped away more than 60 years of law and precedent to put the muzzle back on.
Oh yeah, and they did it on the eve of a midterm election where the MAGA Republicans who control the House, the Senate, the White House and the Supreme Court, were set to see historic losses.
That’s not a coincidence.
We need to understand what this means. It means that, thanks to the Supreme Court, every majority-Black district in America can be eliminated. It means the tools we’ve used to fight racist gerrymandering in court for generations don’t exist anymore. It means that the fundamental promise of democracy is broken as Congress gets to choose your representative, not your community.
It means that it’s time to fight.
Nobody told us that the road would be easy. No one told us that yesterday’s battles were won forever. We know the future we could build. We know the America we believe in. But nobody told us that the road would be easy and if we want that dream to become reality, we have to fight for it.
The Congressional Black Caucus is demanding an immediate vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to restore federal oversight of these discriminatory voting laws and protect minority voters across America and we need to get their backs.
The Maga Republicans have been dodging this vote for years because they know that, if a vote comes to the floor, they’d have to go on the record opposing your right to vote. They don’t want to do that. They’d rather operate in the shadows through right-wing appointees so their hands can stay clean. We can’t let them do that.
Call your Congressman. Call your Senator. Call your friends and family and tell them to call Congress too. Let’s make a noise they can’t ignore and send the message if you won’t pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, then pack your bags because your days in DC are numbered. Tell them that if they refuse to vote for us, we won’t vote for them.
Like Thomas Paine wrote back in 1776, These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
These are the times that try men’s souls. It’s time they saw what we can do. It’s time they knew what America really looks like.
