Congressional Black Caucus Mobilizing Business Support
Today's ruling by a three judge federal panel in the Northern District of Alabama stopping Alabama's congressonal redistricting is not slowing down the Congressional Black Caucus' (CBC) efforts to enlist allies and apply pressure.
The CBC has sent letters to more than 250 prominant companies urging them to condemn the redistricting plans, which they describe as “coordinated efforts to silence Black voices at the ballot box.”
Last week they demanded that Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference athletics officials condemn the redistricting in Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Florida and other states which would eliminate some majority-minority districts. That was followed up by attempting to apply pressure on colleges in those conferences by encouraging black athletes to decommit or enter the transfer portal in protest.
CBC members decribe the corporate letters as an attempt to keep other states from attempting to redistrict to weaken minority voting power and enfluence states that already have. “Corporations that have profited from Black consumers, relied on Black workers, and amassed wealth in part from Black communities cannot look away while Black political power is dismantled in plain sight,” Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Black Caucus, said in an interview.
Clark used the term, “putting corporate America on notice,” to describe the letter but claimed in an interview with Associated Press that the CBS does not want to create an adversarial relationship.
In 2021 a number of major coporations signed onto a request to congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act sponsored by West Alabama Democrat Congresswoman Terri Sewell. It would restore and update the orginal act passed in 1965 after the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march.
This morning's federal court ruling, at least temporarily, orders Alabama to use the federally drawn map that added a second majority-minority district to the state. The judges, however, have given the Republican super-majority legislatures a chance to redraw an acceptable map again. However, an appeal of the panel's ruling to the Supreme Court is most likely.
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