Lee McInnis “Democracy is not a state. It is an act…”
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
I’m not going to lie. It has been a helluva couple of days.
On Friday, May 1, I was at Laborfest in Jacksonville. It was an event sponsored by the Unified Campus Workers of Jacksonville State University. There were some friends from the Communication Workers of America there, and a lot of people from the town came by to say hello.
We were there to support organized labor, but the main topic of conversation was the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nathan Young, an online journalist from Anniston, wanted a quote from me on the topic. I told him that Governor Ivey said she wouldn’t call a special session, and that there would be no redistricting this year, and that I thought the discussion was closed.
Fifteen minutes later, everything I had planned for the next week went up in flames. Someone handed me their phone and said, “Have you seen this?” It was Governor Ivey’s proclamation declaring a special session to redistrict the US House of Representatives and State Senate. Nathan was standing nearby, and I called out to him, “Hey, Nathan, you can go ahead and run that clip, just be aware that everything I said was wrong.”
There are too many moving pieces right now to predict what’s going to happen. The NAACP has already filed a case with the Supreme Court to argue that Callais does not apply to Alabama. I assume other groups, like the ACLU, will be joining that fight. The special session convenes on Monday, May 4, and is scheduled to continue through Friday, May 8, eleven days before the scheduled primary. We probably won’t know anything concrete until Friday at the earliest, but make no mistake, the Alabama Secretary of State, Attorney General, and State Legislature seem hell-bent on disenfranchising a million Black Alabamians.
I assume the ALGOP has made it clear they will target Shomari Figures in the 2nd district and Terri Sewell in the 7th. It’s pretty clear they want to remove the two highest-ranking Black elected officials in the state. Republicans probably see the 3rd as a safe seat, so I don’t think we will be a target. All the redrawn maps I’ve seen have left us largely intact, with some counties possibly shifting at the district’s northern and southern ends to accommodate population shifts out of current Black-majority districts.
We will be at a rally at the State House tomorrow, May 4th, at 2:00 pm. Check my socials for details. After that, we’ll have to be flexible. I’ll keep you up to date on what we’re doing and what is happening. We know what we must do from this point forward. They expect us to just lie down and take this, but we will not.
In an essay published after his death, Congressman John Lewis told us what to do now. He said, “Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.”
They think we won’t fight back or that if we do, it won’t matter. They think their hold on power is so complete that they have nothing to worry about, but they are about to learn that this fight has just started.
It’s time to make good trouble, necessary trouble.
Be well. We’ll talk soon.
Lee McInnis, US House, Alabama District 3
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