‘We’re Not Going Back’: Black Voters March in Montgomery Against Redistricting

MONTGOMERY, Alabama – Roy Wilson remembers marching with his family before the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.

More than 60 years later, the 77-year-old answered the nationwide call to action this weekend as hundreds mobilized across Selma and Montgomery against the direct attacks on the voting protections he fought for as a teenager.

“We’re in trouble. I grew up here in the 60s, finished high school in ‘66 and was so proud and happy for us when the voting rights bill passed, all those years ago,” he told Capital B.

Now, Wilson and other Black Southerners fear a return to a past where Black representation and political power are nonexistent.

A recent Supreme Court ruling eroded a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 6-3 ruling struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana. Within two weeks, several states rushed to redraw their own maps. Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia have used the ruling to either call for special sessions or are considering a debate on redrawing their congressional maps, potentially erasing districts with Black representatives. 

In sweltering 85-degree weather Wilson joined others in front of Alabama’s state capitol in Montgomery. Raised fists, signs, gospel music, and protest chants filled the air on the streets of the Capitol.

“We’re not going back!”  

“You can’t stop the revolution!” 

The mass gathering started with prayer and speeches on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders marched more than 50 miles to the state capitol in Montgomery, to register Black voters in the South. 

Like in 1965, this weekend’s first “All Roads Lead to the South” call to action was filled with prayer, voting registration and fellowship in Montgomery. 

Black voters from across the South told Capital B they remember their parents being politically active in earlier demonstrations for voting access. Now, they’re continuing the fight, bringing their children and grandchildren to witness history in real-time.

Tracy Mitchell, 60, Gulfport, Mississippi

“My mother marched with Martin Luther King (Jr) when she was in college. Knowing that here we are, back at the crossroads again to make a difference. It’s important for us to pick up the baton and start all over again. We get started, we move forward and we get it ready for the kids that’s going to take care of it after we leave. 

“It’s important for Black women to actually be a part of the voter rights and to understand what’s going on. We are the foundation of the family, so therefore it’s important for us to actually be the leaders in regards to making a move, getting things right and making sure people are registered, and understand what’s going on. With me having all girls its very important because we are the leaders and we are the future. The future, they need to understand what we’re passing the baton to and what they need to do.” 

Linda, 76, and Charlie Maiden, 84, Atlanta

“We drove here because our ancestors fought for the right to vote and I want my grandkids to have the right to vote. I think our ancestors fought too hard for these rights for us to lose them. That’s why we’re here, that’s why we drove here [from Atlanta].  My first thought was that’s the beginning of them trying to take us back over 60 years. We are from Louisiana, you know, and I hated to see that, to hear [about the redistricting] in Louisiana. 

“It feels good, it feels like we’re continuing the fight. The fight is never going to end. We’ve got to keeping fighting to keep our rights.” 

Roy Wilson, 77, Montgomery, Alabama

“Now here we are trying to protect our rights against the Republicans. I just think it’s wrong and we’re just…we’re in trouble. This country is in trouble now that the Republicans are in power. 

“When [Gov. Kay Ivey] called that special session, she knew exactly how that would go. You can’t overlook what they’re doing to our voices. It’s just wrong. She knew exactly how that vote would go. 

“My mother was very involved, starting with the bus boycott. We marched as a family in the Selma-Montgomery march. When the march reached Montgomery we joined in and were right here for thst. Once we got the right to vote, I mean, even if we didn’t know the candidates, we had to do our research because not voting [wasn’t] an option. 

Sharon Gargill, 62, Montgomery, Alabama 

“If we don’t come, no one else is going to protect us. No one will protect our voting rights. It’s unfair that they are trying to weed out Black representation because who else is going to speak for us if we don’t speak for ourselves? I am appalled that the governor of the state of Alabama will call a special session and there will be an election, possibly in August, to try to weed out our representative, Shomari Figures. It doesn’t make any sense, so that’s why I’m here today 

“When I turned 18, my mother said you need to go and register to vote. I would catch the bus and transfer downtown to go to Alabama State University.  I turned 18 that August and in November when she asked where my voting registration card was and I said I didn’t have it, I forgot to vote…do you know she locked me out? She. Locked. Me. Out. The next day guess what I did? I registered to vote. Registering to vote is not the end. You have to go to the polls. On voting day, everyone in my household, we go to vote.” 

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