Thousands of people rallied Saturday in Montgomery, Alabama, the cradle of the modern Civil Rights Movement, to mobilize a new era of voting rights activism as conservative states dismantle congressional districts that helped secure Black political representation.
Sacred Soil for Civil Rights
U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey called Montgomery "sacred soil" in the fight for civil rights. "If we in our generation do not now do our duty, we will lose the gains and the rights and the liberties that our ancestors afforded us," Booker said. The crowd was led in chants of "we won't go back" and "we fight."
"We are not going down without a fight. We are not going down to Jim Crow maps," said Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case.
Supreme Court Ruling Weakens Voting Rights Act
A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Louisiana hollowed out the Voting Rights Act, which had already been weakened by a separate decision in 2013 and narrowed further over the years. The ruling cleared 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 due to historical discrimination against Black voters.
The Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said the decision was a direct attack on the legacy of 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."
Rally at Historic Alabama Capitol
A crowd of thousands gathered in front of the historic Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the elder King spoke in 1965 at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. The stage was flanked by statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and civil rights icon Rosa Parks—dueling tributes erected nearly 90 years apart. Speakers noted that the spot was once the temple of the Confederacy and became the holy ground of the Civil Rights Movement.
Some in the crowd drew parallels to 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.
Selma to Montgomery: A Continuing Struggle
The rally began in Selma, where a violent clash between law enforcement and voting rights activists in 1965 galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act. It then moved to the state Capitol, where King gave his "How Long, Not Long" speech that same year. 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 "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."
Civil rights leaders, members of Congress, union leaders, and pastors spoke at the four-hour rally. "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.
Montgomery District Affected by Ruling
Montgomery is home to one of the congressional districts being altered after the Supreme Court ruling. A federal court in 2023 redrew Alabama's 2nd Congressional District after ruling that the state intentionally diluted Black voting power. Black residents make up about 27% of the state's population, and the court mandated a district where Black people are a majority or near-majority. However, 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 on August 11 under the new map.
Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who won election in the district in 2024, said the dispute is not about him but about people's opportunity to have representation. "When Republicans are literally turning back the clock on what representation, what the faces of representation look like, what the opportunities for legitimate 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.
Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, a Republican, said the Louisiana ruling provided an opportunity to revisit a map forced on the state by 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."
Evan Milligan, the lead plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case, acknowledged grief over the implosion of the Voting Rights Act but stressed the need to recommit to the fight. "We have to accept that this is the new reality, whether we like it or not," Milligan said. "We don't have to accept that this will be the reality for the next 10 years or two years or forever."
