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 global 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 just another court ruling—it is part of a broader unraveling of the Voting Rights Act, which since 1965 has prohibited racial discrimination in voting. This decision is once again weakening the political power of Black communities across the South.

And it is not happening only in the Deep South. In Virginia, millions of voters approved a redistricting referendum intended to give citizens a greater role in fair representation, only to watch the courts overturn the will of the electorate and preserve existing political maps. When courts begin dismantling both civil rights protections and voter-approved reforms designed to create fairer representation, Americans should recognize the larger warning signs: our democratic systems are increasingly being reshaped away from the voters themselves.

In states like Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee, we are watching district maps drawn in ways that dilute Black voting strength and silence communities that have long fought to have their voices heard. The result is a growing number of Black Americans living in districts where their votes increasingly carry less political weight.

What is happening today should outrage every American.

For many New Yorkers, it can feel like the attacks on voting rights happening in the South are far away from our daily lives. They are not. We are watching elected officials openly weaken the political power of Black Americans in ways that feel painfully reminiscent of some of the darkest chapters in this country’s history. In Louisiana, the governor paused an election process already underway amid battles over congressional maps and Black representation. In Tennessee, images of protestors filling the statehouse—demanding basic civil rights—look eerily similar to the black-and-white photographs we study from the Civil Rights Movement. For generations, America carried the shame of segregation and the systemic mistreatment of Black citizens while the world watched. We often ask ourselves how ordinary people allowed those injustices to happen, or what we would have done if we had lived through that time. The uncomfortable reality is that we are now being asked that question in real time.

The Supreme Court’s ongoing gutting of the Voting Rights Act could ultimately eliminate up to 30% of the Congressional Black Caucus — one of the most consistent voting blocs advancing federal protections that impact families across the country, including here in New York. For decades, members of the CBC have worked alongside Democratic lawmakers to help pass and protect legislation like the Affordable Care Act, Social Security protections, LGBTQ rights, voting rights protections, gun safety measures, and other policies that support working families and marginalized communities nationwide.

We should call this what it is: a return to elements of Jim Crow-era disenfranchisement.

As a civil rights attorney, I have always been inspired by those who defended equality and civil liberties even when it was met with backlash, political risk, and personal sacrifice. History teaches us that when rights are stripped away from one marginalized group, the erosion rarely stops there.

We are already seeing warning signs. Legislation like the SAVE Act would have made voting significantly harder for millions of women, especially married women whose legal names may not match older documents. If federal identification requirements, such as passports, become necessary for voting, many transgender Americans could face additional barriers simply trying to participate in democracy. We are also witnessing deeply troubling immigration enforcement policies that civil rights advocates warn normalize racial profiling, allowing people to be targeted based on appearance, language, accent, or perceived ethnicity.

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

Congress must act.

We need an updated Voting Rights Act that restores those federal protections and prevents racial vote dilution before elections are impacted. States that have repeatedly violated voting rights should once again be required to obtain federal approval before changing election laws or congressional maps. Congress should also establish federal standards banning partisan gerrymandering, require transparency and independent redistricting commissions, strengthen protections for majority-minority districts, and expand the Department of Justice’s 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 confront the growing crisis of accountability at the Supreme Court itself. I believe Congress must enforce binding ethical standards for the Supreme Court, including investigations and impeachment proceedings for justices who violate those standards. Americans are watching justices face ethics controversies that would end the careers of other public officials, yet there are few meaningful enforcement mechanisms in place. Those entrusted with interpreting and protecting our constitutional rights should be held to the highest ethical standards, not shielded from consequences when those standards are violated.

What makes this moment especially painful is that we know better as a country. We know where voter suppression leads. We know the damage it causes families and communities for generations. And yet, in our lifetime, we are watching parts of this country sprint backward.

For many Black communities whose representation is intentionally diluted, this increasingly resembles a modern form of taxation without representation. Citizens pay taxes, serve their communities, and contribute to society while their political power is systematically weakened.

Because 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.

There is still time to stop this, but it will require all of us — regardless of race, party, gender, or geography — to understand that democracy only survives when everyone’s vote counts equally.

This past weekend, our own Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined Jasmine Crockett, Melanie Stansbury, and more than twenty elected officials from across the country in Alabama to stand in solidarity with their 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 ten candidates running in the Democratic primary to fill Rep. Jerry Nadler’s seat in Manhattan’s 12th Congressional district.