Redistricting push in Georgia and beyond is a direct assault on Black voters

But what happens when democracy is not attacked with violent mobs, but with legislative process?

What happens when the theft of civil rights isn’t perpetrated with pistols and masks, but through maps, meetings and shady movement behind closed doors?

That is the moment we are living in right now – in America and in Georgia.

It feels like we’ve gone backward

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Across this nation, and specifically here in Georgia, we are witnessing a deliberate effort to reduce the political power of African Americans and marginalized communities through voter suppression tactics, judicial maneuvering and redistricting schemes designed to make hard-fought rights null and void.

While the country is consumed with outrage cycles, celebrity scandals, partisan theater and social media trends, systemic power is quietly being rearranged underneath our feet. This is the new algorithm of distraction, and the strategy is intentional. Keep the public off balance and emotionally exhausted while political architects redraw the rules of democracy in real time.

It seems that 2026 showed up dressed like 1955.

But unlike the Civil Rights Movement, the tools of fracturing freedom and dismantling democracy are not billy clubs. It’s political precision, court rulings and manipulated district lines.

It doesn’t require bullying racists like Bull Connor as much as it requires smiling MAGA partisans like Govs. Greg Abbott and Brian Kemp enacting legislative maneuvering sophisticated enough to appear docile and procedural, while producing devastating consequences for specific constituencies that have been oppressed and suppressed since day one in America.

Rights once considered untouchable now appear negotiable. Long-established legal precedents are being eroded piece by piece, district by district, ruling by ruling, until the extraordinary begins to feel like politics as usual.

But we dare not normalize it.

In America, voters are supposed to choose their representatives. The Republicans, in fear of losing their majorities in D.C., want the representatives to pick their voters. It is immoral, illegal, and blatantly un-American. It is retribution dressed up as reform.

And while Kemp has curated an image as a fair and measured conservative, his recent call for a special session to take up the redistricting issue in Georgia feels like a betrayal of his moderate bona fides. I guess it’s never too early to start angling for the 2028 Republican presidential primary, huh, Governor?

The insurrection on Jan. 6,2021, shocked us to the core because it was visible. But the more perilous threat to democracy may very well be the one happening quietly in courtrooms, committee rooms and state legislatures throughout America. One attacked the Capitol with rage. The other attempts to permanently alter representation with strategy.

Both threaten democracy.

And let me be clear: This is not simply a Black problem. This is an American problem.

This moment calls for moral clarity

Credit: AP Photo/Mike Stewart

Credit: AP Photo/Mike Stewart

As this nation approaches its 250th anniversary with pomp and circumstance, every person of conscience — no matter their race or political affiliation — ought to be outraged that our government is working so intently to restrict rather than expand democratic participation.

A democracy should never fear its voters.

Yet too many elected officials appear committed to shaping the electorate into sects they can control rather than serving communities they cannot. And before anyone utters the lazy retort that angst over redistricting is about Black voters being obsessed with being represented by Black officials, the history of elections show that Blacks have had no problem voting for white candidates for offices that range from school board to the presidency. The fact is that in the 250 years of existence, America has yielded only three elected Black governors, 11 Black U.S. senators and one Black president. Case closed.

These redistricting efforts are a direct assault on African Americans, and we cannot afford complacency in this hour. The franchise is sacred and has been secured by the blood sacrifice of our ancestors. However, the permanence of civil rights and inherent protections therein are merely an illusion when we stop protecting what was won.

Our response cannot merely be emotional. We must ensure that our outrage does not become performative and perfunctory in lieu of real coalition building and substantive structural reform. Tweets are not enough. Viral think pieces are not enough. Symbolic outrage without organized strategy only benefits those dismantling democracy right in our faces.

This moment calls for moral clarity, intergenerational organizing, legal advocacy, voter mobilization, and coalition building across racial and political lines.

Because the issue before us is bigger than party affiliation. It is a matter of doing right or doing wrong.

The question before us is whether America still believes democracy belongs to the people — or whether temporary power and allegiance to the current occupant of the White House trumps decency and America’s promise of liberty and justice for all.

History is watching how we answer.

Jamal-Harrison Bryant is the senior pastor of New Birth Cathedral in Stonecrest. He is a noted author, philanthropist, social organizer and civil rights leader.

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