Southern States Move Fast to Dilute Black Votes After Callais Ruling

Within a week of the Supreme Court’s Callais decision, several Southern states—Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee—moved to redraw or accelerate maps to erase or dilute Black-majority districts, pack Black voters into fewer seats, and extend legislative sessions to push mid-decade changes. Activists warn this rapid push mirrors a segregation-era playbook and could mark the fastest disenfranchisement of Black voters since Reconstruction, prompting lawsuits, protests, and intense political backlash as courts weigh challenges to the maps.