Why New Yorkers Should Care About the Return of Jim Crow Politics in the South

There are moments in American history that generations look back on with disbelief and shame. Jim Crow is one of them.

For decades, Black Americans across the South were denied full participation in democracy through literacy tests, poll taxes, intimidation, racial gerrymandering, and violence. The world watched America preach freedom abroad while denying it at home. It became a stain on our nation’s moral credibility—one that generations of civil rights leaders fought tirelessly to overcome.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Louisiana v. Callais is more than another court ruling. It is part of a broader unraveling of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark law that since 1965 prohibited racial discrimination in voting. The decision weakens the political power of Black communities across the South and further erodes protections generations fought to secure.

And it is not happening only in the Deep South. Across Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee, district maps continue to dilute Black voting strength and silence communities that have fought for generations to have their voices heard. For many New Yorkers, attacks on voting rights in the South can feel distant. They are not. We are watching elected officials weaken the political power of Black Americans in ways painfully reminiscent of some of the darkest chapters in American history. In Tennessee, images of protestors filling the state house demanding civil rights look eerily similar to the black-and-white photographs of the Civil Rights Movement. We often ask how ordinary people allowed those injustices to happen. The uncomfortable reality is that we are now being asked that question in real time.

The Supreme Court’s continued gutting of the Voting Rights Act could ultimately eliminate up to 30% of the Congressional Black Caucus, one of the strongest voting blocs advancing protections for voting rights, healthcare access, LGBTQ rights, gun safety measures, and working families nationwide. Weakening Black political representation does not stop with one community. History teaches us that when one marginalized group loses rights and representation, the erosion rarely stops there.

We are already seeing warning signs. Legislation like the SAVE Act would make voting significantly harder for millions of women, particularly married women whose legal names may not match older documents. If passports or federal identification become necessary for voting, many transgender Americans could face additional barriers simply trying to participate in democracy.

We are also witnessing increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement policies that civil rights advocates warn normalize racial profiling based on appearance, language, accent, or perceived ethnicity. The Supreme Court itself has repeatedly expanded law enforcement protections and narrowed civil rights challenges in ways immigrant advocates fear create dangerous precedent.

The same mechanisms once used to suppress Black voters are now being repackaged in ways that threaten immigrants, women, LGBTQ Americans, and other vulnerable communities.

Congress must act. We need an updated Voting Rights Act restoring federal protections against racial vote dilution before elections are impacted. States with repeated voting rights violations should once again be required to obtain federal approval before changing election laws or congressional maps. Congress should establish federal standards banning partisan gerrymandering, strengthen protections for majority-minority districts, and expand Department of Justice enforcement authority to aggressively pursue voting rights violations. Congress already has the constitutional authority to do this under the Elections Clause of Article I. What has been lacking is political courage.

We must also confront the growing crisis of accountability at the Supreme Court itself. Congress should enforce binding ethical standards for the Court, including investigations and impeachment proceedings for justices who violate those standards. Those entrusted with protecting constitutional rights should be held to the highest ethical standards, not shielded from consequences.

What makes this moment especially painful is that we know better as a country. We know where voter suppression leads. Yet in our lifetime, we are watching parts of this country sprint backward. Democracy does not disappear all at once. It erodes piece by piece, court ruling by court ruling, district map by district map, until people wake up realizing their voices no longer matter.

This past weekend, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined more than twenty elected officials in Alabama to stand in solidarity with Black communities. Their message was clear: this is not just a Southern issue — it is an American issue. Representative Ocasio-Cortez called on “the North to pull up to the South” in defense of democracy and equal representation. Well New York, it is time to pull up and speak out.

The civil rights movement was never simply about Black Americans. It was about whether America was willing to live up to its own ideals. That fight is not over.

Laura Dunn, a veteran civil rights attorney, is among eight candidates running in the Democratic primary to fill Rep. Jerry Nadler’s seat in the 12th Congressional district.