TN Redistricting Carves Up Black Vote, Sparking Jim Crow Allegations

Following a Supreme Court ruling that weakened protections under the Voting Rights Act, Tennessee’s Republican-led legislature approved mid-decade redistricting that eliminates the state’s Black-majority 9th District and reconfigures districts to dilute Memphis’s 63% Black population, effectively reducing Black representation in Congress and prompting lawsuits from civil rights groups. Critics label the move as a Jim Crow–style tactic backed by recent court decisions, with echoes of similar maps in other states as Republicans push to consolidate power ahead of the midterms.