The number of Black elected officials across the South is expected to greatly diminish as a result of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Louisiana v. Callais.
The high court opened the door for states to eliminate majority-minority congressional districts, a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Due South host Leoneda Inge spoke with Black elected officials, including North Carolina State Senator Natalie Murdock, about the history of voting rights, Black representation and the future activism. Murdock, 42, is a Democrat and represents District 20 (Chatham and Durham counties) in the state legislature.
This is a partial transcription of their conversation.
Where were you when you heard the latest ruling by the US Supreme Court on that landmark Voting Rights Act? What went through your mind?
I was here in North Carolina. We keep very busy schedules as legislators. And like so many folks, it just brought me to my knees, especially my folks in the legal profession and friends that truly understood the gravity of this. It was just gut-wrenching but predictable. We knew that the VRA (Voting Rights Act) as a whole, was holding on by a thread, especially Section 2. But even though you know something is going to happen it doesn’t make it less painful.
Well, political analysts, journalists, politicians, they have said this latest attack on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act will drastically change what Congress looks like, and it will most likely have fewer people of color and fewer women in office. One lawmaker from Mississippi calls these new times, ‘Jim Crow 2.0.’ Is that too harsh or is it realistic?
It is accurate. I’ve been saying that this is Jim Crow 2.0 since 2021. In 2021, famously you saw Texas break quorum. That is when nationally, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett broke through when we were fighting for Congress to pass a renewed Voting Rights Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We failed to do that and now here we are after the Supreme Court ripped up Section 2.
We are now, only in a few weeks beyond that ruling, and you’ve seen so many states, especially in the South, gleefully call folks back into session, special session, to change maps, laws and to even pause primary elections. So, we should all not only be alarmed, but this is definitely Jim Crow 2.0.
The voices I have been trying to bring together to talk about the demise of the Voting Rights Act, we’ve spoken to some elected officials you definitely know, including 91-year-old Eva Clayton, the first Black to serve in Congress from North Carolina in nearly a century.
I think you are about 50 years younger than Eva Clayton?
I am 42.
So, a lot is expected from your generation. What did you learn listening to her conversation with Congresswoman Valerie Foushee?
So much. Both of them. Congresswoman Foushee, I serve in the senate seat, she occupied some of this district, Chatham County. She served Chatham County as a Black woman. So, it was not exotic for Chatham County to embrace me, as a Black woman. They’re proud that they have a Black woman representing them in the senate. I love Chatham County for that, the same for Orange County. She was the first to do it in Orange.
The same for Congresswoman Eva Clayton. That district, even as it was redrawn, was not a slam dunk. I mean, she has won that district in years where those that were Republican and running for president, still won that district. The same for Don Davis that now holds that district. Donald Trump won that district, and they still won. So, there are also candidates that are uniquely qualified to represent the people of those districts, but they paved the way to make it easier for us to do the work that we do. And if they get up and fight each and every day, that is the least that we can do.
The optimism, still believing in America, still believing in America’s promise. And as she perfectly stated (Eva Clayton), we’re coming on the 250th anniversary of this country. We are still fighting for the right for Black people to serve at all levels of government. So it is not simply an anniversary, it is a time for us to hold America accountable, to say, we have to do better. We have to truly live out and exceed the ideals of the vision our founders had for this country.
So, I think that this is a sign that folks that are just phoning it in, just coasting, you have to wake up, to see that we are in fact in Jim Crow 2.0. And as my ancestors did, as Eva Clayton heroically did, it is our duty as a people to demand that America live up to the ideals that are outlined in the constitution.
You can hear more of this Due South interview with NC State Senator Natalie Murdock, N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee and former Congresswoman Eva Clayton here.
