This Is the Civil Rights Movement of Our Day
With the attacks on Black voting power, the parallels couldn't be clearer
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Sometimes people don’t realize the historical moment they’re living through. This is not one of those moments.
We are living through the Civil Rights movement of our day.
I’ve been saying this for about the past decade since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Too many people ignored the warning signs.
But if you couldn’t see the parallels 10 years ago, you can’t get a clearer connection than literally tearing apart Black voting rights.
What Happened to Voting Rights?
You may feel lost in all the headlines about the Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act a couple weeks ago.
Let me make it plain: The Voting Rights Act is dead.
If not on paper, then in practice.
The crowning achievement of the 1950s-1960s Civil Rights movement was the Voting Rights Act. Now that progress has been erased in an effort to Make America (even more) Racist Again.
The law is still on the books, but it is effectively useless to protect the right to vote, especially for Black people.
The radical right “justices” on the Court basically said racism is mostly a problem of the past, so there is no longer a need for the protections outlined in the Voting Rights Act.
They argued that even trying to correct racial discrimination is now discrimination.
So now states cannot draw congressional districts to ensure Black voters can elect the candidate of their choice.
Here’s why that’s such a big deal…
Each state has a certain number of congressional districts. People can run for a spot in the House of Representatives and one person from each district goes to Congress in that capacity.
The Supreme Court does not allow districts to be drawn to favor one racial group over another.
That sounds fine until you look at the history and realize that for most of this nation’s past, districts were drawn specifically to weaken Black voting power.
They would either draw them to cluster most Black voters into one or two districts so they would never have more than a couple people to represent them and white people could have the majority of congressional spots.
That tactic is called “packing.”
Or they would split Black voters across different districts so they could never have a majority vote in any single district.
That tactic is called “cracking.”
The Supreme Court said racial cracking and packing are no longer problems because our country is much less racist now.
The Court said now you have to prove the mapmakers were intentionally racist. You have to show evidence that can stand up in court that the people who made the district had racism in their hearts.
It is perfectly fine, however, to draw districts to favor one political party over another.
So Republicans got right to work. In less than a week, the Louisiana governor cancelled primary elections and threw out the votes that had already been cast.
The majority-Republican Tennessee legislature voted to redraw its maps to crack the lone Black district in the state.
Memphis is 60 percent Black and now they may not be able to elect someone who represents their interests.
The Supreme Court ruled that Alabama can throw out their maps and redraw them to favor Republicans.
These rulings and new state laws are a direct attack on Black political power.
This is exactly the tactic used during the Jim Crow era. They are trying to make it so Black votes don’t matter.
What Are You Doing Right Now?
So many people today say,
“If I was there during the Civil Rights movement, I would have marched with Dr. King. I would have boycotted. I would have protested.”
Well, we are living through the 21st century Civil Rights movement.
What you are doing now is exactly what you would have done then.
Are you avoiding the news, going about your daily life, and ignoring what’s happening? That’s what you would have done when Black people were being turned away from the polls in the 50s and 60s.
Are you hiding behind ‘both sides’ language instead of taking a stand? You would have been part of the “moderates” that MLK wrote about in the Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Are you more upset by protest tactics that disrupt your sense of civility than by the injustices that made those protests necessary? Then you would have been among those calling for patience, gradualism, and “order” instead of demanding immediate justice.
Are you organizing, donating, showing up, and helping people take action? Then you would be among the number who were on the right side of justice and who we look to for today.
Do This Now
Start using this language in public: This is the Civil Rights movement of our day.
If people still don’t understand this moment, we need to tell the truth louder.
Force people to face the truth about this moment and confront their own action or lack of action right now.
Follow and amplify the work and messages of historic Black civil rights organizations. Here are just a few:
Don’t just follow, like and share what these organizations are doing. Donate to them. Get your churches or local community groups to financially support them. Attend their online events and trainings. Go to their in-person protests and organizing meetings.
Take immediate action.
Go to Selma/Montgomery on May 16 (Saturday) for a day of action. Check out AllRoadsLeadToTheSouth.com
Join us on May 16, 2026 — Moral Moment for Faith Leaders at 9:00 AM in Selma, followed by the Rally at 1:00 PM in Montgomery. Register now and you’ll be the first to know — and the first to help shape what this looks like on the ground.
Most of all, VOTE.
That’s not all we need to do, but cracking and packing districts relies on low or predictable voter turnout.
If those of us who favor democracy and reject authoritarianism and white Christian nationalism break voter turnout records, then even their malicious attempts to dilute the vote fail.
Remember, we the people still have the power. But only if we use it.
History is watching what we do next.
What parallels do you see between today’s voting rights battles and the Civil Rights movement?
The Civil Rights movement was sustained by ordinary people who found each other and acted together. We need that same spirit now. The Justice Journey is a space for learning, encouragement, and collective action in a time of democratic crisis. Join the waitlist today.
The things you have been publishing recently are making me want to research what claims people were making against the Civil Rights Movement and other historical movements and compare them to the claims people are making now. —Something tells me all of the “yeah, but…” & “it’s not really…” probably hasn’t changed all that much.
Thank you!