100 signatures reached
To: South Carolina Legislature
Stop South Carolina's Racist Gerrymander!
South Carolina governor Henry McMaster has called a special legislative session to redraw the state's Congressional maps to eliminate the one Democratic district in the state — a majority Black district held by Rep. James Clyburn. This is a move to dilute Black voting power and silence voices. This is also a direct attack against Rep. Clyburn who has held numerous leadership positions in the Democratic Party going back to 1998.
Why is this important?
This is part of an anti-democracy pattern we’re witnessing all across the South ever since the disastrous Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. States like Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama have rushed to redraw their maps to eliminate majority Black Democratic districts in order to impose one-party rule in their states. When you can’t win on your own merits, you cheat.
After the passage of the Voting Rights Act, more Black lawmakers were elected to Congress than at any time in history, many of whom were the first Black lawmakers elected from their state and districts since the Reconstruction period. All that progress is at risk of being erased in South Carolina and across the South.
Too many people fought and died for Black people in this country to have the right to vote and build political power. We can’t let that be taken away.