Where do we go from here?
Esmeralda Simmons
In Spring 2026, the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decimated the federal Voting Rights Act’s (VRA) ability to protect the voting rights of Black US citizens. They struck the near fatal blow in Louisiana v. Callais, a redistricting challenge brought by white folks that challenged
Louisiana’s recently redrawn congressional map. Please note that the redrawing had only occurred after a court had found that LA had failed to protect the voting rights of its Black voters when it had only created one district where Blacks could elect the candidate of their choice.
A second congressional seat was thereafter created where the state’s Black citizens could elect their choice.
The Supreme Court basically said that the creation of districts that favor a political party is more
important than protecting Black voting rights. It actually declared that a race-conscious remedy to racial discrimination was an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.” Summarily, SCOTUS stated that political gerrymandering trumps protecting Black voting rights!! It further stated that racial discrimination could only be recognized, if you could prove that the intent, not the results, of the map was to discriminate. If the map resulted in racial discrimination that was too bad. You lose!
Proving intent as the core reason is very difficult in 2026. Today, there are few politicians who will stand at a state capital and shout “I intend to discriminate against Black voters” or any of the other racial groups who were protected by the VRA. (Unlike, how in 1954, AL Gov. George Wallace’s made his famous speech against federal legal desegregation mandates, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”)
Now, MAGA politicians need merely declare that they want to favor their political party and they are allowed to trample on the rights of others.
Where do we go from here? First, let’s assess where we are at this moment in US history. We are in, what I call, the “Second Post-Reconstruction Era.”
After the Civil War, Reconstruction in the south began. Black people and their civil rights were protected by occupying federal troops. Black men voted freely and elected many legislators and executive officials to govern them. It only took eleven years, 1866-1877 (Tilden-Hayes Compromise) for the federal government to abandon: the safety and protection of Black citizens from the former slave owners; to eliminate the
Freedman’s Bureau; to end Reconstruction troop protection of the newly free Blacks in the south; and to hand self-governance back to the former insurrectionist societies.
The new rights had been protected by the federal government were none other than “Freedom Amendments” the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution that respectively: ended slavery (except for prisoners); declared all persons born in the USA to be citizens who are entitled to Equal Protection of the law and Due Process of the law; and gave Black men the right to vote.
After 1876, southern states were allowed to establish Jim Crow practices and then pass laws to disregard the newly established constitutional
rights of Black folks in this country. In 1893, SCOTUS affirmed Jim Crow as the law of the land in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision when they upheld that “separate but equal” was constitutional. This decision only ratified the pre-civil war status of an enslaved Black person “That [he/she] has no rights that the white man need respect.” Dred Scott decision, 1857.
We see how it took hundreds of years for Black folks to overcome legal slavery in the US, but only eleven years for the federal government to renege of our hard won freedom.
From 1893 to 1954, Jim Crow was the law of the land.
In 1954, we overturned second class citizenship and racial segregation in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeko, Kanas and a series of other court decisions.
It had taken Black people sixty years to reverse the First Post-Reconstruction retrenchment.
From1954-1977, we won victory after victory in reestablishing our Post Civil War civil rights in the US. The roll-backs began, however, in 1978 with the anti-affirmative action class, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. That case recognized the validity of “reverse discrimination” against whites even when the preferred treatment was a remedy for past discrimination in college admissions against Blacks and other racial minorities.
Then came the Shelby Cty. v. Holder case in 2013 that held Section 5 of the VRA to be invalid. Section 5 was the strongest, most effective civil rights law in the US. Then came Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, 2023, which ended the consideration of race, even as a factor in college admissions.
But, the near death blow occurred most recently, when SCOTUS in LA v. Callais held that protecting Black voting rights in the redistricting of Congressional districts was an unconstitutional “racial gerrymander.” And, that party preference gerrymandering had priority to protecting
Black voting rights. The court further destroys the VRA by declaring only proven “intentional” discrimination could support a Section 2 VRA claim of racial discrimination.
That case comes at a time when winning every seat in Congress is vital to pro-white supremacists retaining control of Congress in 2027. So the Second Post -Reconstruction roll back of Black civil rights is in full swing.
As a result of the Callais decision, currently, there is an active movement to dilute Black voting power.
For example, there is a record number of states now conducting previously rare off-season congressional redistricting, armed with the Callais decision, to eliminate districts where Black voters control the outcome. Simultaneously, there exists dozens of planned and locally enacted voting restrictive measures, such as curtailing mail-in ballots and restricting early voting.
What is predicted direct result of this decision?
It has been estimated that there is a potential loss of 12-19 of Black controlled congressional seats. The long term results are also a major loss of Black political power across the country in state and local government. We are returning to plantation politics in this nation.
Where are we now?
We are in the middle a Second Post-Reconstruction Era that is focused on the curtailment of Black civil rights in the US, as well as our economic growth, health, education and welfare, in addition to restricting Black and Brown immigration and conducting mass deportation.
It may take Black folks decades to restore our position in the US back to this point in history.
Where do we go from here?
What can we do to protect our voting rights in 2026 and going forward?
We are the saviors that we have been looking for !!
Voting rights are the tip of the iceberg. First, we must protect ourselves completely. The government will not sustain us. Government assistance to our people in any form is ebbing, if not completely ending. (AKA: The Freedman’s Bureau is once again shutting down.)
To meet this challenge, to advance Black people in the US, Black people must once again be a highly organized and politicized community of activists.
Everyone must Get ACTIVE / Get Organized and Build Up community institutions that we control.
Every Black citizen must be registered and politically educated about what is happening in our community.
- Political and Black History education must be offered by every organization and institution free to all residents;
- Every Black resident must become politically active in their resident communities with their neighbors, not just their ethnic group.
- Every single Black citizen must register and come out to vote in every election. We must have a highly effective GOTV operation. This alone can defeat our enemies attempts to strip away our political power. Even in districts that we don’t control, we may possess the swing vote in every election, if we are organized. We can then demand the attention of the elected officials to our community needs.
- Our political organizations must be on the vanguard building and protecting our political power on the local level, and advocating for public policy solutions to address community’s progress within and outside of electoral politics;
- We must support and (re-) build community institutions and organizations to serve and protect our people: children, youth, young adults, adults, middle aged, active seniors and our elderly;
- We must each actively work to protect our culture and history; support our cultural institutions, organizations and artists; build new institutions to create our self-projected future.
- We must support and recruit our young leaders and professionals to work in and for the rebuilding of our communities. Create high paying positions for them to serve our community’s needs and development.
NYS Voting Rights Act
There is Good News regarding Black voting rights in New York State.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, enacted in 2022, protects the voting rights of Black New Yorkers (and other racial groups that are covered by the federal VRA) in state and local elections. It does not affect federal elections.
Therefore, in New York State, Black voting rights in state and local elections are currently safeguarded.
Since it has been clear that the federal winds were blowing against Black voting rights enforcement, local Black voting rights advocates acted preemptively to safeguard our rights. The late Dr. John Flateau, Esmeralda Simmons, Esq., and Dr.
Zulema Blair, all of Medgar Evers College, each had a hand in writing the original language of the NYS Voting Rights Act bill sponsored by State Assembly Member Latrice Walker. The highly esteemed Legal Defense Fund ushered the bill into law, with the collaboration of voting rights colleagues, under the co-sponsorship of State Senator Zellnor Myrie. The NY State legislature passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Act in 2022 and it was signed into law that year.
We must self-determine the advent of our communities’ development.
We have done it before in New York City. For example, Weeksville was a Free Black self-sustaining village in Brooklyn; and Seneca Village existed on the land where Central Park was created. Black New Yorkers created the first public schools in NYC in the 1800s – the African Free Schools, which were the basis of the later created NYC public school system.
During the early settlement in the 17th Century through to the 1950 segregation era in New York City, Blacks controlled our own general stores; churches and other institutions of worship; doctors, dentists, herbalists and midwives; lawyers;,light manufacturing; farms and livestock; health and welfare associations; hospitals
and clinics; restaurants, luncheonettes and bakeries; banks and lending associations, e.g., Freedom National Bank, Carver Savings bank, Paragon Association, etc.
Now and in the future, to sustain our people in Brooklyn and NYC, we must re-create our self-sustaining villages, towns and communities.
Restore. Revitalize Rebuild!
Addendum
Louisiana v. Callais, 2026 – a legal briefing
Key holding— a VRA Section 2 case of racial discrimination must prove intentional discrimination on the basis of race.
Facts
LA redistricting map allowed 1 congressional seat for the 30% of its population which is Black. The map was proven by then VRA sec. 2 standards to be discriminatory against Black voters. The trial court find racial discrimination and orders the state to redraw the map.
- A new map is drawn with 2 seats electable by Black voters the second map and the constitutionality of the VRA Sec. 2 is challenged by whites voters an unconstitutional race-based discrimination because it was based on a race-conscious remedy.
- SCOTUS: aggrieved must prove Sec 2 claim by proving INTENT TO DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS
- OF RACE and no other basis. They said that it is unconstitutional to use an effects test.
Results
This intent standard makes it nearly impossible to prove discrimination. People are not standing on the statehouse declaring “Segregation now; segregation tomorrow; segregation forever” like,
Alabama governor, George Wallace, did in 1963 in defiance of federal civil rights mandates.
What are the effects of Callais?
Long term effects – states and local governments can draw new redistricting map now and after a decennial census, that eliminate districts where Black people or other protected racial groups, can elect the candidates of their choice, i.e, less “Black districts.”
This will result in less elected representatives in Congress and locally and LESS ELECTORAL POLITICAL POWER in Congress, state legislatures, and local councils. Ergo, less reparative legislation and government programs; less governmental resources to Black communities; and further repression by the executive branches.
Applications to NYS – state congressional districts can be redrawn with the Callais standard prioritizing political preferences.
Good news— state and local voting practices are protected by the NYS John Lewis Voting Rights Act 2023 that prevents a retraction of voting rights from occurring in NYS legislative elections and voting actions and procedures, as well as in city and local elections and voting procedures.