Nearly 500 Georgians filled the state’s Capitol building bright and early on June 17. That Wednesday marked the start of a special legislative session where Republican legislators planned to redraw Georgia’s voting maps. Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of national voting rights organization Fair Figh t Action After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, the Peach State was the seventh southern state attempting to exploit the ruling and rig their voting maps to silence Black and brown Americans. The Republicans’ southern strategy was clear: tip the scales in the 2026 midterm election to split voters of color into unfair districts to weaken the power of their votes.  The Georgians who showed up in opposition against this abuse of power were organizers, volunteers, and neighbors – many getting civically engaged for the first time, taking time off work and school to make their voices heard. And their voices were heard loud and clear. Before the special session started, Republican leaders announced they were backing down from rigging the voting maps. We watched the state’s mostly white Republican leadership dress up their retreat as principle. But we knew better – we are the reason they retreated. None of this happened by accident. Black Voters Matter, Fair Fight Action, and others organized, doing outreach, filling buses and helping worried Georgians come together as a movement with a plan. The organizations were the fuel. But the fire that filled the Capitol was us: Georgians who showed up and refused to sit quietly. After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, it allowed Republican politicians to redraw voting maps with an aim to erase Black and brown representation – and lock in their own power over the will of the people. Tennessee moved first, targeting a majority-Black district in Memphis – one of the largest majority-Black cities in America. For years the city sat within a single congressional district. The new map splits it into three – one of the new districts reaches nearly 200 miles to the town where the Ku Klux Klan was founded. LaTosha Brown is an American community organizer, political strategist, and consultant. She is the co-founder of the voting rights group Black Voters Matter Alabama Republicans went next. Not even a tornado slowed them as they forced through a map that carved up a district nearly 49 percent Black. In Florida, Republicans erased Black and brown representation just ahead of the Supreme Court ruling, as if they already knew how the court would rule. Even where GOP politicians succeeded, we made them fight for every inch. The people packed out committee hearings to make sure the record showed how Americans would not stand behind these old Confederate states rigging the rules against Black and brown voters. Republicans keep forgetting: the communities they try to silence have never given up without a fight. In Louisiana, about a hundred of us packed a committee hearing and stayed until nearly 4 a.m. to oppose a rigged map. In Mississippi, we forced Republicans to delay. In South Carolina, we turned out in such force that even the state senate’s own Republican leader admitted it was a bad idea. Georgia was supposed to be next up in the map rigging rush, following the White House’s marching orders. But by the time they reached the microphones, we already filled the building. As they announced they were backing away, we chanted “Black votes matter” too loud to be ignored. After watching opposition build across the South, they saw the crowd and folded.  This is what people power looks like. Every rally, press conference, call or text, and social media post made this win possible.  Georgia has a long history of politicians changing the rules when Black voters build power. After Reconstruction, white politicians expelled the first Black legislators rather than share power with them. Technical-sounding election rules, including the county unit system and runoff elections, have long been used to weaken Black political power. Gov. Kemp has spent years continuing that history, using government power to make it harder for Black and other voters of color Georgians to vote. While tactics change, the pattern remains the same: when our communities gain power, politicians rewrite the rules to weaken them. This isn’t a story about politicians. It’s about us, the people. We did not stop every rigged voting map, but we exposed their abuse of power, organized faster than they anticipated, and proved that people will not stand by while their power is stolen. Republican politicians may try again after November, before newly elected leaders are sworn in. If they do, we know the playbook, because we just did it: shine a light, organize fast, and show up in numbers too big to ignore. The fight is far from over, but we have always had the roadmap for winning. The post The Roadmap to Victory on Voting Rights Runs Through The South appeared first on The Atlanta Voice. ...read more read less