By David L. Horne, PhD, OPED Contributor | Our Weekly

In the continuing battle for political respect and inclusivity that Black folks in the U.S. have been immersed in since the end of the U.S. Civil War, a little bright bulb of hope and redemption just appeared in the southern sky.

A federal court in Alabama, of all places, has just rendered a stunning political defeat to the “political KKK’ers” who were already prematurely celebrating their supposed subjugation—again—of Black voting rights in Louisiana after the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, which upended the remaining significance of the Voting Rights Act that Dr. King and a host of other leaders had fought for.

The high court’s ruling in that case focused on neighboring Louisiana but quickly opened the floodgates for white lawmakers across the South to try to rush to redraw their own respective maps in time for this year’s congressional voting.

The U.S. federal court in Alabama officially jumped into those debates on whether Alabama’s unprecedented and quick redistricting efforts in the wake of the latest Supreme Court ruling in favor of Louisiana’s remapping of its state voting districts were unlawful. The Alabama federal court decided that Alabama’s quick attempt to follow Louisiana’s lead was an illegal attempt to rob Alabama State’s Black population of legal representation.

A mere two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to finish its determined aim of gut-ting what remained of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by overturning Section II’s last protection against radical racial gerrymandering in state voting laws, specifically in the Louisiana case, neighboring state Alabama—yes, that Alabama—tried to join the southern choir by attempting to imme-diately redistrict Black candidates and voters out of being able to participate in state voting of their choice, beginning in 2026.

But Katy barred the door. Specifically, a three-judge federal panel on Tuesday, May 26, blocked Alabama from using a new GOP-led congressional map for this year’s congressional elections that would have yielded the GOP an extra House seat.

The court’s decision focused on a map approved by Alabama lawmakers after the Supreme Court voted last month to gut key protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Though the high court’s ruling in that case focused on neighboring Louisiana, it quickly opened the floodgates for lawmakers across the South to redraw their own respective maps.

A three-judge federal panel ruled that the proposed Alabama re-map attempt was intentionally discriminatory and could not be used in the 2026 election cycle, writing that elections should not proceed under the new plan, which was “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.” The judges said Alabama lawmakers had deliberately diluted Black voting strength—echoing the concerns of voting rights advocates—despite previous court orders requiring fair representation.

This latest federal court ruling was similar to a recent one that barred Virginia from using a Democrat Party-led redistricting map there earlier this month. So there does seem to be some effort to be fair on this voting rights issue. For now, the bipartisan playing field seems to be pretty even, but more battles are expected before November’s midterms. We all better buckle up.

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