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Anger mounts after Tennessee Republicans redraw maps to erase last Democratic, Black-majority district
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature passed redistricting maps on Thursday, eliminating the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district as GOP lawmakers scramble to improve their fortunes ahead of the November midterms.
The new map splits Shelby County, the home of Memphis, a majority-Black city that played a critical role in the civil rights movement, into three separate Republican-leaning districts.
The majority-Black district being eliminated in the Memphis area has long been represented by Rep. Steve Cohen, the state’s lone Democratic congressional representative. All nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts are now Republican-leaning.
Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton claimed that the new districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.
Demonstrators protest inside the Tennessee state Capitol on 7 May 2026. Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters
But Democrats dismissed these claims and have argued that dividing up Memphis effectively deprives the Black community of representation in Congress.
“These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump,” said state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat from Memphis who is running for the US House.
Democrats say the redistricting effort, which prompted fierce protests, was a cynical attack on the hard-fought gains for equal representation won in the civil rights movement in a state that was forged by slavery and segregation.
The redraw comes as Republican-led southern states scramble to enact new maps in the wake of last week’s landmark Callais v Landry decision supreme court ruling, which invalidated swaths of the Voting Rights Act which had restrained state governments from drawing congressional districts that left Black voters at a political disadvantage.
Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting. Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, is reportedly due to sign the map into law imminently.
Key events
Here are some details about the seismic impact last week’s US supreme court ruling will have on the voting power of racial minorities going forward, courtesy of my colleague Sam Levine:
The US supreme court ruled that Louisiana will have to redraw its congressional map, in a landmark decision that effectively guts a major section of the Voting Rights Act.
In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the court rendered ineffective section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining powerful provision of the 1965 civil rights law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 has long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting.
“Allowing race to play any part in government decision-making represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context,” Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative, wrote for the majority opinion. “Compliance with section 2 thus could not justify the state’s use of race-based redistricting here. The state’s attempt to satisfy the middle district’s ruling, although understandable, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”
The court’s decision is a major upheaval in US civil rights law and gives lawmakers permission to draw districting plans that weaken the influence of Black and other minority voters.
Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether states should redraw their congressional maps in response to the ruling, Donald Trump said: “I would.” In a dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan wrote the court had now accomplished a “demolition of the Voting Rights Act”. You can read more here:
At the Tennessee state capitol, there were a number of protests against the legislature’s move to redraw the state’s congressional map that carved up the state’s majority-Black and sole Democratic district. Here are a selection of pictures that have been sent to us over the newswires:
Anger mounts after Tennessee Republicans redraw maps to erase last Democratic, Black-majority district
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature passed redistricting maps on Thursday, eliminating the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district as GOP lawmakers scramble to improve their fortunes ahead of the November midterms.
The new map splits Shelby County, the home of Memphis, a majority-Black city that played a critical role in the civil rights movement, into three separate Republican-leaning districts.
The majority-Black district being eliminated in the Memphis area has long been represented by Rep. Steve Cohen, the state’s lone Democratic congressional representative. All nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts are now Republican-leaning.
Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton claimed that the new districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.
Demonstrators protest inside the Tennessee state Capitol on 7 May 2026. Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters
But Democrats dismissed these claims and have argued that dividing up Memphis effectively deprives the Black community of representation in Congress.
“These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump,” said state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat from Memphis who is running for the US House.
Democrats say the redistricting effort, which prompted fierce protests, was a cynical attack on the hard-fought gains for equal representation won in the civil rights movement in a state that was forged by slavery and segregation.
The redraw comes as Republican-led southern states scramble to enact new maps in the wake of last week’s landmark Callais v Landry decision supreme court ruling, which invalidated swaths of the Voting Rights Act which had restrained state governments from drawing congressional districts that left Black voters at a political disadvantage.
Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting. Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, is reportedly due to sign the map into law imminently.
