On Tuesday, residents in Alabama’s newly redrawn congressional district two will vote for the first time.
A June 2023 ruling by the supreme court created the new district in the Black belt, which spans from the state’s Choctaw county, on its western border, to Russell county, in the east, where Black people make up 48.7% of the population. The decision also preserved the only other majority-Black district in the state – district seven. Voters in district two will have the opportunity to increase their political power, a historic change that has the potential to give voters in the Black belt a representative government.
For Letetia Jackson, one of the plaintiffs in Allen v Milligan, the US supreme court case that formed the new district, this election is personal, the culmination of a years long struggle.
“[We wanted to] make sure that Black voters and the African American population in the state of Alabama have an opportunity to have the type of representation that our numbers support,” said Jackson, who is also convener of the South Alabama Black Women’s Roundtable, an organization that works to engage Black voters.
Black people make up about 29% of Alabama’s population, making it the fifth Blackest state in the country, behind Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and Maryland. But Black voters within the Black belt had been pushed into different congressional districts, which prevented them from voting as a contiguous district and, ultimately, suffocated their political power.
“We have seven congressional districts,” Jackson said “We only [had] one Black majority district, and we were advocating for at least one additional opportunity to elect another congressional member to represent our areas.”
Following the 2020 census, in which the population of Black respondents grew, Jackson said that there was an opening to push for a more representative government. After years of lawsuits and appeals that ultimately made their way to the supreme court, the lines were redrawn, creating the new congressional district two.
On election day, after voting for a presidential candidate, district two’s voters will move down ballot to vote for their representative in the United States House. They will choose between the Democrat Shomari Figures, who is Black, and Republican Caroleene Dobson, who is white. Despite its demographics, since 1823, the area has only been represented by white politicians, the majority of whom were, since the 1960s, Republicans. If Figures is elected, he would become the first Democrat to hold the position since 2008. And for the first time in the state’s history, two of Alabama’s seven House representatives would be Black.
“People are really, really excited about that position because in this area there’s been very little representation that actually reflects the needs, the issues, the policies of the people who live there,” she said. “And so they’re excited about the possibility of being able to have someone that really knows the district and that knows the people.”
Casting the vote
Jackson said that even though her district changed, no one from the elections office notified her and many other residents.
And during the Super Tuesday primary earlier this year, advocates reported that more than 6,000 voters in district two received postcards with incorrect voting information. In the absence of official voter information and mobilization efforts, the South Alabama Black Women’s Roundtable and other organizations are working to educate voters.
“We’ve seen the district voting age population increase by 49%,” Rodriesha Russaw, executive director of The Ordinary People Society (Tops), said. “And so these people are learning more and more about how redistricting impacts the voting process and how it impacts their daily lives.”
Russaw also said that there had been an “increase of harm”, since the last election, specifically for Black voters. She said that 15 to 20% of the calls made to a call center that is run for the Alabama Election Protection Network were from elders who were afraid to vote. She said the feeling of anxiety was pervasive.
“One thing that we found is that the voter intimidation has increased in many ways through marketing, through social media, through just everyday contact with individuals, with police officers when it comes to police brutality and violence … [it’s] scare tactics so Black people and people of color would not show up to the polls,” she said.
Tops and other organizations are planning to deploy trusted community leaders as volunteers throughout neighborhoods to encourage people to vote and give voters a sense of comfort when they are at the polls.
They have received voter education training, are working throughout multiple counties in district two. They will be present at the polls, helping folks get off of vans and out of buses and into the polling places.
“We have a really good chance to see a high [turnout] in young voters and first-time voters for this year – more than ever since the Obama election,” she said. “We’re amped up to make sure that these trusted leaders are at the forefront and that when they get to the polls, they see these faces because we don’t want them scared off by the police officers.”
Jackson, from South Alabama Black Women’s Roundtable, said that she had heard from many folks who are feeling enthusiastic.
“I will not say that it’s a slam dunk or that everything is going to be rosy on election day, but I do know that there’s a lot of excitement in the air,” she said. “There are pockets of poor communities in the Black belt that no one ever generally even pays any attention to, and when you talk to some of those people, they’re excited to have an opportunity to finally get somebody who will come and speak to them and represent them.”
In collaboration with other organizations, Tops is working to ensure that every county in district two has transportation to and from the polls. Transportation could prove to be key in a largely rural district, especially one in which voting locations may have changed without voters being notified.
“[We are] ensuring that every particular county and district too has a means of transportation for those who maybe have disabilities or have physical impediments because we believe that equity and inclusion is a big thing,” Russaw said.
Their inclusive voter engagement also extends to childcare. While talking to voters, Russaw said that organizers repeatedly heard that people had to choose between staying home with their children and going to the voting polls. This year, Tops is partnering with community volunteers to give people a safe place for their children while they go out and vote. The organization’s multipurpose center will have activities for children from the morning until after polling locations close.
Jackson said that multiple organizations have been working across the state to reach voters via knocking on doors, making phone calls, sending information and holding rallies and events. They have been trying to ensure that people know when, how and where to vote.
“Our education and mobilization strategy throughout this process is to let voters know they need to make a plan to vote, not to just show up where they normally show up, but to make sure that’s where they’re supposed to be,” she said.
Tops is also using their radio station, WKCD99.1FM, to provide updated information about the election, criminal justice and reproductive justice. That station is also being used for their “Bringing hope to the vote” campaign, in which they aim to inspire people to vote.
“People have lost so much hope,” Russaw said. “We’ve seen the political climate change. We’ve seen Covid, lost a lot of family members. The economical challenges in Alabama are not changing – minimum wage is still $7.25. People are struggling to eat and feed their kids. When we’re talking about engaging voters, we have to remind them that there’s hope … If we continue to focus on bringing hope to people, we will find that people are more amped to cast their vote because they feel like it matters.”
