JACKSON, Miss.—Waikinya J.S. Clanton gestured with her hands as she walked across the stage of the Jackson Convention Center on Wednesday while wearing a black t-shirt with the words, “I FIGHT FOR VOTING RIGHTS” in white all-capital letters.
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mississippi State Director recalled the history of her ancestors who had fought for voting rights while also celebrating the thousands of protestors who had gathered that day in Jackson to fight against efforts to erode Black electoral power in the state.
“This is our fight. Say, ‘This is our fight!’” Wanton encouraged the crowd.
“This is our fight!” protesters chanted back.
Thousands gathered in Jackson on Wednesday to protest proposed redistricting that could reduce the number of Black-majority districts in Mississippi’s legislative maps, eliminate its lone majority-Black U.S. House district, and potentially further diminish Black political power. Since the U.S. Supreme Court largely nullified a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 through Louisiana v. Callais, Mississippi’s governor and other white Republican leaders have made it clear they hope to redistrict to maximize partisan power.
“A couple weeks ago, the Supreme Court looked at everything our people fought for and everything they marched for, everything they bled for and everything they died for, and they said, ‘Not good enough,’” Courtney Body, the executive director of Mississippi Engaged, said on stage at the convention center. “But I need them to know and hear something today: We are not silent, we are not invisible and we are not going anywhere.”
The Callais ruling curtailed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which has long prevented states from enacting racially gerrymandered maps for the purpose of diluting the voting power of racial minorities. In recent years, federal courts have ordered Mississippi to create more majority-Black legislative and state Supreme Court districts to comply with the Voting Rights Act, but the Callais decision has already reversed those rulings.
‘It’s Freedom Forever’
The demonstrators, whose ages ranged from small children to elderly people, started the day around 10 a.m. with a rally by the War Memorial outside of the old Mississippi State Capitol building, now the Old Capitol Museum, and marched by the current Mississippi State Capitol Building on the way to the convention center.
A large coalition of more than 40 organizers hosted a Day of Action protest, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, People’s Advocacy Institute, Mississippi Votes, Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign, One Voice, Fair Fight, Mississippi for a Just World and the NAACP.
Protestors poured into the Jackson Convention Center and were greeted by an auditorium full of advocates, civil rights activists and lawmakers loudly vocalizing their support. On a stage in front of a black banner with “voting rights” in white and yellow writing, community leaders and U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson were speaking to attendees.
The rally lasted about five hours, with countless people speaking about voting rights and the need to develop a strategy to start the 2026 version of Freedom Summer in Mississippi.
Reena Evers-Everette, daughter of assassinated voting rights leader Medgar Evers, said Wednesday’s Day of Action would change attendees’ lives forever because they will remember fighting for their rights. She compared it to 63 years earlier on May 20, 1963, when her father became the first Black Mississippian to give a speech aired on local television.
“The years of change is upon us. In the racial picture, things will never be the way they once were. History has reached a turning point here and over the world,” Everett said. “Understand right now, history has reached a turning point again. Not just Jim Crow 2.0—it’s freedom forever.”
After the post-Civil War Reconstruction era ended, white supremacist Mississippi lawmakers convened at the Old Capitol in 1890 to enact the Mississippi Plan, a Jim-Crow overhaul of the Mississippi Constitution to roll back the rights Black people had gained since Reconstruction—including the rights to vote. Black Mississippians would remain disenfranchised until after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Since the Callais ruling, Republicans in Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina and Alabama—all southern states with histories steeped in Jim Crow and racial apartheid—have made moves to dilute Black voting power by redrawing their congressional districts. Organizers in Montgomery, Alabama, held an “All Roads Lead to the South” rally over the weekend.
‘We Can Transform the South’
Mississippi was supposed to redraw its state Supreme Court districts during a special session that would have begun on Wednesday, but Gov. Tate Reeves canceled it after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Mississippi did not have to create more majority-Black state Supreme Court districts. The special session was supposed to be at the Old Capitol while the new Capitol is undergoing repairs. Mississippi is 38% Black.
However, the governor is urging the Mississippi Legislature to redraw its legislative, state supreme court and congressional lines before the 2027 elections, when all Mississippi House and Senate will be on the ballot. He also vowed in a social media post on May 13 that the state’s only Black congressman’s “reign of terror” will be “over” soon, referring to Democratic U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson—the only Black member of Mississippi’s congressional delegation.
On stage at the rally, Thompson criticized Reeves for describing his tenure as a “reign of terror”, even while supporting President Donald Trump—who has been convicted of 37 felonies and inflamed his supporters with false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
“I have been called many things in my lifetime, but I’ve never been called a terrorist. But I do understand what code words mean,” Thompson said. “They never said that the Klan was terrorists. They never said that the people who killed other folks because they were encouraging people to vote was terrorists. They never said people who burned churches were terrorists. They never said people who assaulted Black women because of their color are terrorists.”
“But then, you find somebody who all he’s ever done in his life is try to make life better for people, and you call that person a terrorist. Well, if that’s a terrorist, I’m guilty, because I want to make sure that everyone in this state has an opportunity to be the best that they can be,” he continued.
Thompson’s district, which includes the Mississippi Delta and most of the capital city, Jackson, is 64% Black. After Congress made amendments to the Voting Rights Act in 1982, Mississippi created a majority-Black district following a federal court order that said its districts diluted Black voting power. That district, the 2nd Congressional District, first elected Mike Espy, a Black man, in 1986, and later elected Thompson in 1993.
Supporters from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois and other states joined Mississippians at the protest, including Tennessee House Rep. Justin Jones, who burned a Confederate flag inside the Tennessee State Capitol after his colleagues voted to weaken the state’s only majority-Black district.
Instead of Thompson waging a “reign of terror” across Mississippi, Jones said Thompson is part of the “reign of righteousness” that is working across the nation from state capitols to the White House.
“And it’s this coalition on stage that’s going to transform Mississippi, and my sisters and brothers, if we can transform Mississippi, we can transform the South. And if we can transform the South, we can transform this nation. If we can transform this nation, Black folks will get free across this world,” he told rally attendees. “Something’s happening in Mississippi, and it’s giving us goosebumps in Tennessee, and now in Alabama, Louisiana, because we know we’re on sacred ground.”
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of redistricting and read past stories here.
