Texas shows why the Voting Rights Act is still necessary
The 60th anniversary of the VRA can't be just a commemoration. It must be a call to action.
By Diamond Brown and Yadira Paz-Martinez
Sixty years since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became law, we find ourselves battling with those who would turn back the clock in pursuit of unchecked political power.
Last week, GOP legislators in Texas unveiled a redistricting proposal that looks more like a tactical maneuver to suppress voters than a legitimate attempt at fair representation. The map is designed to flip five Democratic congressional seats by targeting Black and Latino communities across Austin, Dallas, Houston, and South Texas. Despite the narrative being portrayed, this is not routine redistricting. It’s a surgical effort to divide communities, dilute voting power, and manipulate district lines to lock in political power.
The VRA was intended to stop this kind of manipulation. But a new generation of bad actors is reviving Jim Crow-era tactics with a 21st-century twist. The attacks on civil rights and democratic institutions are no longer subtle. They are sustained, coordinated, and designed to outlast a single election cycle.
Take Louisiana for example. In Callais v. Landry, the Supreme Court quietly requested additional briefing, signaling it might be preparing to take aim at Section 2 of the VRA, one of the law’s last remaining enforcement provisions. If the court moves to gut it, we could lose one of the last meaningful nationwide checks on extreme racial gerrymanders.
We’ve seen how this story plays out. In Rucho v. Common Cause, the court declared that partisan gerrymandering, no matter how extreme, was a “political question” beyond judicial review. That ruling gave state legislatures the green light to manipulate district lines for partisan gain without fear of federal judicial intervention. And because racial and partisan gerrymandering go hand-in-hand, Rucho created fertile ground for maps like the one now proposed in Texas.
The courts’ role in this is just one piece of the puzzle. Across the country, our democracy’s infrastructure is being dismantled piece by piece. Peaceful protests are being criminalized. Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are being banned under the guise of neutrality. Black history is being whitewashed from curricula. Communities are being surveilled, silenced, and disappeared. And, through it all, the federal government, which has the legal authority and moral responsibility to protect us, is largely complicit. A slow, methodical erosion of constitutional rights is unfolding before us.
This is why the 60th anniversary of the VRA is not a commemoration. It must be a call to action. The attacks we face today—from classrooms to the courthouses, from ballot boxes to the border—are not happening in a vacuum. They’re part of a calculated strategy to redraw the electorate, restrict democratic participation, and consolidate power.
Texas is both a proving ground and a warning shot. If lawmakers succeed with manipulating maps and silencing voters in one of the most diverse states in the nation, it will embolden similar power grabs nationwide. Already, governors in traditionally blue states are floating the idea of fighting fire with fire by redrawing their maps to secure more Democratic seats. Texas’s attempt to gerrymander has shifted the conversation from how lawmakers can best deliver for their constituents to how they maintain political power. What happens in Texas will not stay in Texas. The response we mount today will shape our democracy for generations to come.
Protecting our democracy will depend on everyone refusing to be complicit in a system that tells us to fear our hardworking immigrant neighbors, punishes educators for teaching the truth, criminalizes protests, and relies on political gerrymanders to silence dissent about all of the above. A critical first step is passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which is championed by Sen. Raphael Warnock, Rep. Terri Sewell, and many others. It’s a chance for Congress to honor its commitment to equal representation. And it’s an opportunity for all of us to organize, to advocate, and to remind the nation that democracy only works when it works for everyone.
John Lewis called voting “the most powerful non-violent tools we have in a democracy.” Sixty years later, it’s still worth protecting with everything we’ve got.
Diamond Brown is a senior policy counsel at Democracy Defenders Action. Yadira Paz-Martinez is a litigation and policy intern at Democracy Defenders Action.
The article is good. Lewis is a hero.
You nailed it!