In the birthplace of Civil Rights Movement, groups rally to defend Black political representation

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Thousands of people rallied Saturday in the city considered the crucible of the modern Civil Rights Movement to push back against conservative states’ efforts to dismantle congressional districts that helped secure Black political representation.

The gathering in Montgomery, Alabama, was put together in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act and the resulting rush by southern states to redraw lines. Speakers said they returned to the city, famous for the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march, because the fight that began there is continuing for later generations.

The Rev. Bernice King, speaking near the spot where her father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., addressed voting rights marchers in 1965, said the dedication and sacrifice of that generation changed the trajectory of the country.

“Sixty-one years later, we come back as new generations to this same hallowed place to reclaim and redeem that legacy because the recent Supreme Court decision demands our presence. It was not only a legal decision, y’all, it is a moral disgrace and a shameless assault on Black political power,” King said.

She said the decision strikes “at the very heart of my father’s and my mother’s sacrifice” and is a direct attack on the generations who faced “dogs and batons and bombs and billy clubs so that Black people and all marginalized communities could participate fully in this democracy.”

Civil rights leaders, Democratic members of Congress from across the country, union leaders and pastors spoke at the rally titled “All Roads Lead to the South.”

The crowd gathered in front of the Alabama Capitol, the place where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the elder King spoke in 1965 at the end of the voting rights march. The stage stood in front of Capitol statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and civil rights icon Rosa Parks, tributes erected nearly 90 years apart and reminders of the state’s complex history.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey called Montgomery “sacred soil” in the fight for civil rights. U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama said the gathering was not a protest, but “a call to action.” Speakers called upon voters to show their numbers at the ballot box.

“They think they can draw us out of power. They do not know the sleeping giant that they just awakened,” said U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York.

Attendees stood for hours in summerlike temperatures for the rally that stretched on for more than four hours. The crowd was led in chants of “we won’t go back” and “we fight.”

Some in the crowd said the effort to redraw lines has echoes of the past.

“We lived through the ’60s. It takes you back. When you think that Alabama’s moving forward, it takes two steps back,” said Camellia A Hooks, 70, of Montgomery.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Louisiana hollowed out the voting rights law that was already weakened by a separate decision in 2013 and then narrowed further over the years. That helped clear the way for stricter voter ID laws, registration restrictions, and limits on early voting and polling place changes, including in states that once needed federal preclearance before they could change voting laws because of their historical discrimination against Black voters.

Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement are alarmed by the speed of the rollbacks, noting that protections won through generations of sacrifice have been weakened in little more than a decade.

Kirk Carrington, 75, was a teen in 1965 when law enforcement officers attacked marchers in Selma on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” A white man on a horse wielding a stick chased Carrington through the streets.

“It’s really just appalling to me and all the young people that marched during the ’60s, fought hard to get voting rights, equal rights and civil rights,” Carrington said. “It’s sad that it’s continuing after 60-plus-odd years that we are still fighting for the same thing we fought for back then.”

City will be affected by Supreme Court ruling

Montgomery is home to one of the congressional districts that is being altered in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

A federal court in 2023 redrew Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District after ruling that the state intentionally diluted the voting power of Black residents, who make up about 27% of its population. The court said there should be a district where Black people are a majority or near-majority and have an opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.

But the Supreme Court cleared the way for a different map that could let the GOP reclaim the seat. While the matter remains under litigation, the state plans special primaries Aug. 11 under the new map.

U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, who won election in the district in 2024, said the dispute is not about him but rather people’s opportunity to have representation.

“People tell us that we are not who we once were,” Figures said of the South. “That is true, but we certainly aren’t where we need to be,” he said.

Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, a Republican, said that the Louisiana ruling provided an opportunity to revisit a map that was forced on the state by the federal court.

“People tend to forget what happened. When this thing went to court, the Republican Party had that seat, congressional seat two,” Ledbetter said last week. “There’s been a push through the courts to try to overtake some of these red state seats, and that’s certainly what happened in that one.”

Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case, said the fight will continue inside and outside of the courtroom. A three-judge panel has scheduled a May 22 hearing on a request to try and stop Alabama from switching maps.

“We are not going down without a fight. We are not going back to Jim Crow maps,” Dowdy said.