We Are Built for This Fight : All is Not Lost in Voting Rights Set-back

I was born one year before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In my six decades, rights have been won, eroded, and in some cases stripped away. Women’s reproductive freedom, for instance, rose, fell, and is currently on its own form of life support. Every day brings uncertainty, and every news cycle carries a hard truth: progress in America is neither guaranteed nor permanent. Our values shift with administrations, and apparently, our experiences are not our own. The nation’s highest court, in ransacking Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, has left our nation’s house in disorder.

For years, Section 2 served as a critical tool to challenge racial discrimination in voting, ensuring that Black communities, and others historically excluded, had a fair shot at representation. Weakening it is not just a legal shift; it is a moral one. Despite all the lip service about fairness and opportunity, the structures of power continue to bend away from justice when it matters most. Okay, I was being polite. Simply said they cheat. Cheat to maintain control, cheat to push an agenda, cheat to tame an insolent head of state.

And I concede, that’s the easy answer. When we search the layers of history, we know this is a deeper conversation and a more difficult truth.

So, let’s be honest about where we stand. This is a country that has never fully atoned for slavery. It has never fully paid reparations and has never fully made things right. The assertion of “reverse discrimination” or unfair treatment of whites, in policies designed to address historical racism and harm, implies that we have reached “the Promise Land.”  You know…the one Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached about. However, that inversion of truth is not new, but it is gaining renewed strength. It is being codified into laws, reinforced through courts, and echoed across political discourse.

The consequences of this assertion are profound. Representation at every level of government is at stake, from local school boards to Congress. Protections are being weakened, and the communities most impacted are pushed further to the margins. Districts, whether demanded by the President or sanctioned by the courts, that dilute Black voting power are wrong. Southern states, like Louisiana, are moving at warp speed to restrict black voter access, silence their voices, and keep them out of elected office. The courts have de facto co-signed their charge.

We cannot ignore how we got here. Over time, strategic decisions around judicial appointments have reshaped the courts. Beginning with the obstruction of then-Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blocked or refused to hold hearings on former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden’s nominees for vacant U.S. Supreme Court seats, we now face a judiciary that increasingly reflects a narrow ideological vision. These acts, though, were a part of a consistent effort to undermine Black voting rights.

The result feels reminiscent of a believed bygone era, one that echoes the spirit, if not the letter, of Black Codes, where laws and legal systems were designed to control, exclude, and limit Black freedom while maintaining an appearance of legitimacy. So let me say it, we need to expand the federal Supreme Court.

In this moment, which is neither final nor irrevocable, we need to apply pressure, be persistent, and participate. Democracy requires both a collective defense and determination. I am thankful, I come from people who have proved they are built for times such as these. Let the church say, Amen!