The 1960’s was a very tumultuous and consequential decade. One of the prolonged problems that came home to roost in that era was the Civil Rights issue.
Lyndon B. Johnson had become President after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Johnson was a ruthless “win at all costs” former Senator from Texas. He had been a strong-armed Democratic Senate Majority Leader. He had been in the group of very powerful seniority laden southern bloc of senators who had blocked Civil Rights for at least a decade, even after the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision.
However, Lyndon Johnson was the ultimate political animal. He knew that as President, he could champion and pass Civil Rights legislation that would assure his election to his own term as President. He used all his political prowess and passed the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. He rode that crescendo to election to the Presidency in 1964.
Being a tough, East Texas bred politician, Johnson knew southern politics. When he signed the Civil Rights Bill, he looked over at his long time Senate mentor, the venerable Richard Russell of Georgia, who Johnson had just run over, and Russell was glaring at Johnson. Johnson looked up and said, “I have just signed the South over to the Republican Party.” Johnson’s words were prophetic. LBJ won the Presidency in 1964 in a landslide over Barry Goldwater. He carried 44 states. However, the five Deep South states voted Republican for Goldwater. Alabama was one of those five southern states. Alabama and all of our neighboring sister southern states have voted Republican for President since the 1964 Southern Goldwater Landslide.
LBJ came back in 1965 and passed the Voting Rights Act. Within that law, he took out his vengeance on the five Deep South states. He added a section to his Voting Rights Act that dictates these five states would be under the thumb of the U.S. Justice Department and formerly discriminated and prohibited from voting black southerners would be registered to vote. Furthermore, these newly enfranchised black voters should be given preferential treatment in voting and elections.
This Reconstruction Era style dictation has granted federal judges the power to create Congressional districts that are overtly gerrymandered to create Democratic districts in defiance of majority-ruled Republican Legislature’s constitutionally granted powers. These judges have hung their hats on the Voting Rights Act.
In a Louisiana case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in recent months, the omnipotent Supreme Court of the United States appears poised to hand down a decision that declares Section Two of the 1965 Voting Rights Act null and void. The decision by SCOTUS, if indeed it is forthcoming, should be rendered no later than June.
How will it affect Alabama? More than likely, Governor Ivey will call a special legislative session. Our super majority Republican Alabama Legislature will enact new congressional lines. They will definitely dismantle the recently, judicially gerrymandered new district. This district, which was decreed by federal judges to overtly discriminate against conservative Republican voters to create a majority, minority district, will be gone. That seat, now held by Democrat Shomari Figures, will be gone. It will be restored to a Republican district.
The Republican legislature will be tempted to take the Democratic Seat of our veteran Democratic Congresswoman Terri Sewell, also. However, in their partisan zeal, they should tread carefully before they throw Terri Sewell out. If you keep Sewell, our Congressional delegation will return to six Republicans and one lone Democrat. If you consider that both of our Senators are Republican, that gives us eight Republicans and one Democrat. Suppose a Democrat is elected President, or the Democrats become the majority in the House. Without Terri Sewell, we have no protection. She has become a leader within the Democratic Congressional Caucus. Terri Sewell is our lifeline to a Democratic White House or Democratic Congress.
Elections have consequences. Trump’s election as President and his ability to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court has changed southern politics. If indeed the 1965 Voting Rights is stricken down, it will mean 10 to 12 new Republican districts in the Deep South.
We will soon see.
See you next week.
Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at [email protected].
