If America wants to understand what the Supreme Court’s latest voting rights ruling really means, watch Mississippi.
Mississippi is not just my beat. Mississippi is America’s warning label. What happens here rarely stays here. When voting rights are weakened in Mississippi, the rest of the country should pay attention, because the same legal arguments, political maps and power plays will not stop at the state line.
In Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Louisiana’s second majority-Black congressional district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because, in the Court’s view, the Voting Rights Act did not require the state to create it. The Court’s syllabus says “the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create an additional majority minority district,” so no compelling interest justified the state’s use of race.
That may sound technical. It is not.
This decision is about power. It is about who gets heard. It is about whether Black communities can elect people who understand their neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and history. For decades, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has been one of the most important tools for challenging maps that dilute the voting strength of Black voters and other voters of color. The Associated Press described the ruling as a weakening of a landmark civil rights law that helped increase minority representation in Congress and elsewhere.
The court did not erase the Voting Rights Act from the books. It did something quieter and more dangerous. It made the law harder to use.
That matters in Mississippi because Mississippi has never had a clean relationship with the ballot box. This is the state of the 1890 Constitution, poll taxes, literacy tests and generations of tactics designed to strip Black citizens of political power. This is the state where Medgar Evers was murdered, where Fannie Lou Hamer was beaten and where Vernon Dahmer was killed after helping Black people register to vote.
A Fire Has Started
Mississippi has the highest Black population share of any state, roughly 37% to 38%, depending on the measure used. Yet a federal court found that Mississippi’s Supreme Court districts dilute Black voting power in violation of Section 2. Mississippi elects nine justices from three districts, three from each, and the court found the current map fragments Black voting strength. In contrast, alternative maps could create a reasonably configured Black-majority voting-age district.
Think about that. In the Blackest state in America, Black voters are still fighting for a fair chance to shape the court that shapes Mississippi law.
Gov. Tate Reeves understood the stakes before the ruling came down. He called a special legislative session to address Mississippi Supreme Court redistricting, with lawmakers set to return 21 days after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision. The Associated Press reported that Reeves said the Supreme Court’s ruling would guide whether “race-conscious redistricting” violates the Constitution.
Then came Reeves’ response after the ruling. According to the Los Angeles Times, Reeves posted on X: “First Dobbs. Now Callais. Just Mississippi and Louisiana down here saving our country!”
That is not just commentary. That is a worldview.
And by May the warning had gotten louder. Mississippi Today reported that some Mississippi Republicans are now calling for the state to target U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson’s district, the state’s only majority-Black congressional district and the only Democratic-held congressional seat in Mississippi. State Sen. Kevin Blackwell said, “It’s time to erase Bennie Thompson’s district.” In contrast, State Sen. Mike McLendon said, “We need to eliminate Bennie Thompson’s district and create a 4R-0D congressional map for Mississippi.”
Paying Attention
Let us be clear. Reeves has not called a special session for congressional redistricting. The May 20 session—one that Reeves ultimately cancelled—was limited to state Supreme Court districts. But when lawmakers start saying out loud that they want to “erase” the only majority-Black congressional district in the Blackest state in America, the rest of the country should hear the alarm.
Voting maps are not abstract. They decide who sits on the court when questions about criminal justice, public education, voting rights, and state power come before the bench. Congressional maps decide who speaks for the Delta, Jackson, Hinds County, rural hospitals, public schools, farm communities, working families and Black voters whose communities have been split, packed, and diluted for generations.
America should pay attention to Mississippi because Mississippi shows how fast theory becomes action. Within days of the Supreme Court weakening a key voting rights tool, politicians in the Blackest state in America were talking about erasing the only majority-Black congressional district.
The Voting Rights Act was paid for in blood. We do not honor it by treating voting rights like a partisan inconvenience. We honor it by refusing to let legal language hide old power games.Mississippi is not just where voting rights history happened. It is where the next chapter is being written. Now, Black Mississippi and all of America must watch every pencil stroke.
This MFP Voices opinion essay reflects the personal opinion of its author(s). The column does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Free Press, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to voices@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints.
