Recent gerrymandering efforts in Louisiana and Tennessee, along with a Supreme Court decision that dealt another major blow to the Voting Rights Act, energized thousands to march in the same spaces that led to the VRA’s first passage.
Under the Alabama sun, shouts and chants could be heard for miles, all in the name of the power of the Black vote.
Weeks after the monumental Louisiana vs. Callais decision that gutted more parts of the Voting Rights Act, thousands descended upon Alabama’s state capitol, as well as Selma, for the “All Roads Lead To The South” rally to drum up awareness of the disenfranchisement of Black voters in neighboring southern states such as Tennessee and Florida.
Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana state legislatures seem poised to draw up new maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, while Mississippi has paused redistricting efforts, though Governor Tate Reeves will consider the position at a later date.
Among those in attendance were Montgomery mayor Steven L. Reed, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NY), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL), Rep. Shomari Figures (D-AL) and thousands more who traveled to Montgomery via bus, car, or plane thanks to grassroots organizing by local orgs and national civil engagement groups.
“We’re here, Montgomery, not at a stopping point, but at a starting point,” Reed, the first Black person to hold the position of Mayor in Montgomery, said. “We’re here in this city because of the spirit, because of the courage and because of the commitment of our forefathers and foremothers who got us to this point.”
“When Republicans are literally turning back the clock on what representation, what the faces of representation, look like, what the opportunities, legitimate opportunities for representation look like across this country, then I think it starts to resonate with people in a little bit of a different way,” Figures said.
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A redrawn map in Alabama affects Figures, who was elected from the state’s second congressional district in 2024. If the current map is struck down and reverted to the 2023 map, Figures’ seat would be in the 1st District, widely considered a Republican stronghold in the state.
Booker called Montgomery “sacred soil,” saying that if they didn’t fight for voting rights now, then “we will lose the gains and the rights and the liberties that our ancestors afforded us.”
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For those in attendance, Saturday represented a call to arms. For Alabama residents with family members deeply involved in the fight for voting rights in the 1960s, the latest fight became even more personal.
“My grandmama, my momma, my mother-in-law – our ancestors did not cross that bridge, walk during the bus boycott, my cousins got locked in the First Baptist Church [in Montgomery], across from the police station in the 60s, my other cousin got beat up by a horse up on Jackson Street – we didn’t do all that for this,” Carole Burton, a Montgomery resident told The Guardian.
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