1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

You need to speak out — loudly and on the record — against what Republicans are doing to majority-minority districts across the South right now. Since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, GOP governors and legislators have moved with stunning speed to erase Black political representation. This is not a policy disagreement. It is a coordinated effort to silence Black voters. The examples are not subtle. Mississippi's Governor called Bennie Thompson's 32-year tenure representing a majority-Black district a "reign of terror." Alabama's Governor framed the dilution of Black voting power as a "win for Alabamians." In Tennessee, Republicans carved up Memphis's majority-Black ninth district, stretching one new district 200 miles toward Nashville specifically to drown out Black votes. The rhetoric accompanying these maps echoes George Wallace's 1963 inaugural address almost word for word. This is the dismantling of the Second Reconstruction in real time. I want you to condemn these actions by name, support federal legislation to restore the Voting Rights Act, and make clear that gerrymandering Black voters out of representation is racism — full stop. Silence is a choice, and right now it is the wrong one.