the preacher’s house up on the hill

Flintville, Tennessee

Two Black Tennessee lawmakers were physically escorted out of chambers this week while Republicans quietly held a hearing to approve gerrymandered maps that would eliminate the state’s only majority-Black congressional district. No referendum. No special election. No public vote. Because they know what happens when voters actually get a say — just look at Virginia, where the people spoke so loudly that Republicans had to drag the courts in to override them. This isn’t new.

During Reconstruction, Black Americans held more congressional seats than at any point in the prior 90 years of American history. And white supremacists spent the next several decades tearing that down, through gerrymandering, poll taxes, and voter intimidation. 150 years later, the same tools. Different suits.

The audacity of escorting Black lawmakers out of their own chambers while dismantling Black political representation, and then telling us the courts aren’t political, is breathtaking. These are the same courts they’re counting on to make it stick. This is a coordinated, multi-front assault on Black Americans. And we need to say it exactly that plainly.

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from parthenon tower by Stephen Drake