Alabama could soon have a U.S. House delegation that more closely matches its diversity after a redistricting lawsuit. For Black voters, the change has greater significance than who holds the seat.
Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Alabama's Congressional districts, poses for a portrait on Government Street in Mobile, Ala., on April 1.Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Alabama's Congressional districts, poses for a portrait on Government Street in Mobile, Ala., on April 1.For Shalela Dowdy, a Black Mobile-based voting rights organizer, that's straightforward, too.
And she's focused more on getting voters to show up in November to actually vote for their new member of Congress, and to not take things for granted.For many Black voters in the newly drawn district, the stakes of a voting rights victory is something that does not need to be explained. "It means a lot to me because I feel like we need to have a voice in there," she said."Somebody that stands up for our district, for us, you know, that knows our struggles and what we've been through."
On the surface, the wide array of people and places that make up the new district seem to have little in common save a near majority of Black people, but Georgia State University Perimeter College Professor Joseph Bagley says that's not the case. "A lot of people from Mobile and Montgomery have family members that live in the Black Belt counties that migrated to Mobile and Montgomery for better jobs throughout the years," Shalela Dowdy said."So we have family, we call it, 'up the country' that live in those areas. So we are a community of interest."
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