Thousands of people rallied at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery on Saturday, returning to the city that was the crucible of the modern Civil Rights Movement to push back against what speakers described as a coordinated assault on Black political representation. The gathering, titled “All Roads Lead to the South,” was organized in direct response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act and accelerated efforts by southern states to redraw congressional district lines that had given Black voters a meaningful opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.
The Rev. Bernice King addressed the crowd from near the Dexter Avenue spot where her father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., spoke to voting rights marchers at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. “Sixty-one years later, we come back as new generations to this same hallowed place to reclaim and redeem that legacy because the recent Supreme Court decision demands our presence,” King said. “It was not only a legal decision, y’all, it is a moral disgrace and a shameless assault on Black political power.” She said the decision strikes at the heart of her parents’ sacrifice and is a direct attack on the generations who faced “dogs and batons and bombs and billy clubs so that Black people and all marginalized communities could participate fully in this democracy.”
The stage for the rally was erected in front of the Alabama Capitol, where statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and civil rights icon Rosa Parks stand as reminders of the state’s complex history. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey called Montgomery “sacred soil” in the fight for civil rights. U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama said the event was not a protest but “a call to action.” Speakers urged voters to demonstrate their numbers at the ballot box, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, said, “They think they can draw us out of power. They do not know the sleeping giant that they just awakened.”
Attendees stood for more than four hours in summerlike temperatures. The crowd was led in chants of “we won’t go back” and “we fight.” Some attendees, including veterans of the Civil Rights Movement who had participated in the original Selma marches, said the current rollbacks echoed the past. “We lived through the ’60s. It takes you back. When you think that Alabama’s moving forward, it takes two steps back,” said Camellia A Hooks, 70, of Montgomery.
Kirk Carrington, 75, was a teenager in 1965 when law enforcement officers attacked marchers in Selma on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” A white man on a horse wielding a stick chased Carrington through the streets. “It’s really just appalling to me and all the young people that marched during the ’60s, fought hard to get voting rights, equal rights and civil rights,” Carrington said. “It’s sad that it’s continuing after 60-plus-odd years that we are still fighting for the same thing we fought for back then.”
Central to the rally is the fate of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. A federal court in 2023 redrew the district after ruling that the state intentionally diluted the voting power of Black residents, who make up about 27% of Alabama’s population. The court held that there should be a district where Black people are a majority or near-majority and have the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice. However, the recent Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for a different map that could allow the GOP to reclaim the seat. While litigation continues, the state plans to hold special primaries on Aug. 11 under the new map.
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, who won election in the district in 2024, said the dispute is not about his political future. “People tell us that we are not who we once were,” Figures said of the South. “That is true, but we certainly aren’t where we need to be.”
Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, a Republican, offered a contrasting view, stating that the Louisiana ruling gave the state a chance to revisit a map that was forced on it. “People tend to forget what happened. When this thing went to court, the Republican Party had that seat, congressional seat two,” Ledbetter said. “There’s been a push through the courts to try to overtake some of these red state seats, and that’s certainly what happened in that one.”
Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case, said the fight will continue inside and outside the courtroom. A three-judge panel has scheduled a May 22 hearing on a request to block Alabama from using the new map. “We are not going down without a fight. We are not going back to Jim Crow maps,” Dowdy said.