A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Alabama's Republican-controlled legislature is in the middle of a special session to change its congressional maps. The session started Monday in response to last week's Supreme Court ruling that limited how the Voting Rights Act can be applied. The decision effectively removes race as a consideration for drawing district lines. Here's NPR's Debbie Elliott.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ladies and gentlemen, the Alabama Senate will now come to order.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Republican leaders want the state to use 2023 congressional maps drawn by the legislature, maps that federal courts found discriminated against Black voters. A three-judge panel imposed a new map that gave Alabama a second Black Democrat in Congress. Now GOP House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter says they have an opportunity for Republicans to win all seven of Alabama's congressional seats.
NATHANIEL LEDBETTER: The people voted to have the supermajority as the way it is today. And so the - you know, this is the voice of the people. I mean, I - we had three judges determine how 5 million people are supposed to vote.
JUANDALYNN GIVAN: This is not just Alabama history. This is world history.
D ELLIOTT: Democratic state Representative Juandalynn Givan of Birmingham.
GIVAN: Alabama is first out the chute. So today in history, there was a bill filed in that will basically say that people that look like me, people that are Black, people that come from marginalized communities, do not deserve to have representation.
D ELLIOTT: Republicans argue no one is taking away anyone's vote. State Senator Chris Elliott says they're selecting a map that aligns with the Supreme Court.
CHRIS ELLIOTT: You can use partisanship in redistricting. And so as a partisan - right? - as a Republican senator, I'm interested in making sure we have as many Republicans to support the president and support Speaker Johnson as possible.
D ELLIOTT: Outside the statehouse, civil rights activists promised a fight.
SHEYANN WEBB-CHRISTBURG: (Shouting) We going to what?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Shouting) Vote.
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: (Shouting) We going to what?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Shouting) Vote.
D ELLIOTT: Sheyann Webb-Christburg was just 8 years old when she marched on Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, when law officers beat peaceful protesters trying to march to Montgomery to demand equal voting rights.
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: As I reflect on that Bloody Sunday march, I am deeply saddened to stand here today...
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: Yeah.
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: ...For us to be in the state in which we're in...
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: That's right.
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: ...Fighting.
D ELLIOTT: Civil rights groups say they will maintain a presence at the statehouse as lawmakers debate changing Alabama's congressional districts.
Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Montgomery.
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