Jim Crow Born Again in Tennessee

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Jim Crow, a patron saint of of bigotry, racism, and marrying your cousins in much of the United States and particularly in the American South, was thought, or at least hoped, by many to have succumbed to mortal social wounds during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, but he miraculously sprang back to life yesterday in the Tennessee state Capitol building in Nashville.  

Both houses of the Tennessee State Legislature voted to pass a new congressional district map that will completely eliminate all Black and Democratic representation in the state's congressional delegation.  If the voters vote as their masters in Nashville are counting on them to do, Black citizens and Democrats will no longer be represented in Congress by anyone elected in Tennessee.

Tennessee only had one (of nine) congressional districts that was Black majority and Democratic to begin with, but that was one too many for the raging racists of the Volunteer State.  The vote in the legislature, after a day of  loud demonstrations inside and outside of the Capitol building, was a decisive 64-25 in the House and 25-5 in the Senate.  Tennessee's Republican Governor Bill Lee signed the measure the moment it reached his desk.

One of the highlights of the protests was Democratic State Representative Justin Jones of Nashville burning a paper Confederate flag inside of the Capitol building.  Jones and one other state representative, both Black, were expelled from the State House of Representatives in April of 2023 for leading a protest inside of the Capitol, but were quickly voted back into the legislature by their districts.  

The GOP Tennessee Legislature was quick to act on its political wet dream after the US Supreme Court voted 6-3 on April 29th to nullify Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act that had kept Black representation in place.  Now, with that ruling, state legislatures can draw congressional districts based on political party affiliation, and since the majority of Black voters are reliable Democratic voters, states in the south immediately began looking at breaking up "Democratic" districts instead of "Black" districts, a political sleight-of-hand.

In the previous congressional redistricting Tennessee had one majority Black and Democratic district, a tight georgraphical area around Memphis.  (Memphis is almost two-thirds Black.). Now, with the new maps, the city of Memphis is part of three separate congressional districts, one of which stretches nearly three hundred miles from the city's center.  The new districts encompass enough rural areas to ensure that each becomes reliably Republican.

With this last minute change, it is unclear whether overseas voters or military voters from the new districts will have adequate time to cast their votes in the upcoming primary elections or not, but those people were clearly not a priority of the Tennessee State Legislature and governor as they rushed to make Tennessee White Republican again.

Other southern states are already knee-deep in drawing maps to eliminate their own Black Democratic districts, and the Republican troglodytes in the Missouri State Legislature are undoubtedly chomping at the bit to give St. Louis the Memphis treatment.  

Praise Jesus and pass the keys to the White restrooms!

The Old South has risen!  Jim Crow is born again!