WASHINGTON (AURN News) — A federal court Tuesday handed Black voters in Alabama a significant victory, but the fight is far from over. A panel of three federal judges blocked Alabama’s Republican-led legislature from using a new congressional map that would have eliminated the state’s only majority-Black congressional district won by Black voters after years of legal battles.
That seat, Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, was won in 2024 by Shomari Figures, D-Ala., making him Alabama’s second Black member of Congress currently serving.
Black voters sued Alabama, arguing the Republican-controlled legislature deliberately drew maps to dilute Black voting strength in a state where Black residents make up about a quarter of the population.
Civil rights attorneys fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court and won. Lawyers representing Black voters argued that the same panel had already found Alabama’s congressional map was intentionally discriminatory in 2023.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, R, has already announced an appeal directly to the Supreme Court.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
