\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHere we are today. Back at this bridge. When I was a little girl, Dr. King said to us, \u2018Children, when I ask you, what do you want, I want you to say freedom.\u2019 And here we are, 61 years later.\u201d 70-year-old Sheyann Webb-Christburg fears progress is being undone in Alabama as the state\u2019s Republican-led Legislature races to redraw the state\u2019s voting map before the midterm elections. Last month, the Supreme Court struck down a key Voting Rights Act protection for minority voters. Now, the extent of that ruling is being tested. After a federal court ruled that the state\u2019s redrawn map discriminates against Black people, Alabama has appealed to the Supreme Court to allow the state to use it. Sheyann says the effort reignites memories of a darker past. \u201cMany people, if they registered to vote back in the 60s, their lives was threatened.\u201d At 8 years old, she witnessed it firsthand. \u201cWhat happened here on Bloody Sunday?\u201d \u201cAs we made our way across this bridge, I\u2019ll never forget seeing the policemen with tear gas. People had begun to be beaten, just trampling over people as if they weren\u2019t human beings. And the picture of Bloody Sunday has never left my heart.\u201d Since the Supreme Court ruling, Republican leaders have moved quickly to break up majority Black districts across the South, including here in Alabama. These two Democratic districts were created to allow Black voters the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. But with five months before the midterms, conservatives across the South argue race should not be a factor in the creation of voter districts. \u201cYou cannot say that we are all created equal, and that states must treat everyone equal under the law, and then allow a law to sort people based upon race.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the day when Alabama gets a 7-0 congressional representation. It\u2019s consistent with who we are as a very conservative state.\u201d \u201cA reminder that justice matters. Truth matters. Democracy matters because biblical justice protects those who are vulnerable.\u201d In Montgomery, a history of disenfranchisement leaves Alabama\u2019s heavily Democratic Black population fearing their district and their voices will be erased. \u201cNot happy with what\u2019s being done in the statehouse.\u201d \u201cYeah.\u201d \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve reached the top of the stairs and someone just \u2014 and pushed me.\u201d \u201cYeah, yeah, yeah.\u201d \u201cAnd pushed my children.\u201d \u201cWhat would losing representation mean to people in this district?\u201d \u201cThere are people who don\u2019t have running water and who have live sewage in their front yards. And it was not until representation was present that those neighbors were actually able to be served. If you have no one at the table who is representing your interest and who is concerned about you, then you know you that you will not be represented, and the result.\u201d Beyond representation, activists like Anneshia Hardy worry this redistricting battle will cause voters to lose faith in the democratic process. \u201cFolks are like, \u2018Are elections still happening? Will it even matter if we go and vote?\u2019 So when you cause that type of confusion, oftentimes it results in disengagement. And that does not just hurt Black folks. That hurts us all.\u201d Crowd: \u201cWe\u2019re not going back.\u201d The New York Times reached out to Alabama\u2019s Republican leadership, but they did not acknowledge our interview requests. \u201cAin\u2019t no power like the power of the people cause the power of the people don\u2019t stop.\u201d It remains unclear which maps will be used in the midterm elections. Until then, advocates are organizing rallies to register their protest. \u201cAs a Black woman in this country, just about every right that I have is some type of law that can be overturned. And in my lifetime, I\u2019m actively watching those efforts happen. Even as they dilute the power, we need folks to go and vote. We need folks to continue to show up even more.\u201d In silent defiance, Sheyann marched in Selma again. \u201cMuch blood, sweat, and tears were shed in an effort for African Americans to gain their right to vote. We got to fight for them. Even though they are no longer with us, in my mind, they are counting on us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cHere we are today. Back at this bridge. When I was a little girl, Dr. King said to us, \u2018Children, when I ask you, what do you want, I want you to say freedom.\u2019 And here we are, 61 years later.\u201d 70-year-old Sheyann Webb-Christburg fears progress is being undone in Alabama as the state\u2019s Republican-led<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[4308,7865,9590,702,809,19696,3578],"class_list":{"0":"post-49821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-fighting","10":"tag-fought","11":"tag-rights","12":"tag-theyre","13":"tag-unraveling","14":"tag-voting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}