Explainer · From The State We’re In
The fight for
democracy.
Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. The systematic attack on Black civic participation. This is the plain-language guide to what’s happening to American democracy — and to the communities working to protect it.
The Catalyst
Louisiana vs. Callais
The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais didn’t just weaken the Voting Rights Act — it removed its final remaining major pillar. This wasn’t a standalone legal moment. It was a turning point in the broader attack on multiracial democracy, and it became the catalyst for this project.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, states enacted at least 32 restrictive voting laws in 2025 — tying the highest total since the organization began tracking this legislation in 2011. Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by strict voter ID laws, polling place closures, voter roll purges, and the criminalization of basic voter assistance.
When the courts won’t protect the vote, communities must.
Start Here
Democracy is under strain.
The right to vote — and to have that vote count — is the foundation of self-government. For much of American history, that right has been contested, expanded, and rolled back. Today, it is under a coordinated attack that is quieter, more technical, and more effective than the poll taxes and literacy tests of the past.
The tools have changed. The pattern is the same: keep power concentrated by deciding, in advance, whose votes will count and whose will not. And no communities are more directly targeted than Black communities.
Chapter One
Gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing voting district lines to guarantee one party — or one group of incumbents — wins, no matter how people actually vote.
Every ten years, after the census, states redraw their congressional and state-legislative maps. In most states, the party in power draws those maps. They use precinct-level data to do two things:
Both tactics are used against Black voters over and over — in the South, the Midwest, and increasingly in states like Tennessee, where Nashville’s Black congressional representation was split into three white-majority districts in 2022. The result: a city of nearly 700,000 people lost a unified voice in Congress.
When maps decide elections, elections stop deciding maps.
Chapter Two
The attack on voting rights.
In 2013, the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted the heart of the Voting Rights Act — the requirement that states with a history of racial discrimination get federal approval before changing their election rules. Then came Louisiana v. Callais, removing the Act’s final remaining major pillar.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 2025 saw at least 32 restrictive voting laws enacted nationwide — tying the highest total since tracking began in 2011. Within 24 hours of Shelby, states began passing new laws. Since then:
None of these laws say the words “Black voters.” They don’t have to. They target the times, places, and methods Black communities most often use to vote.
Chapter Three
Silencing Black civic power.
Voting is one form of civic power. It is not the only one. Black civic participation runs through churches, unions, HBCUs, mutual aid networks, tenant associations, and organizers who knock doors year-round — not just in October.
That infrastructure is being targeted too. Black elected officials have been expelled from state legislatures for protesting. School boards have been stripped of authority in majority-Black cities. State takeovers have overridden locally elected leadership in Jackson, Memphis, and Detroit. Nonprofits organizing Black communities face new reporting requirements, funding restrictions, and public intimidation.
The goal isn’t just to limit the Black vote. It’s to limit the Black voice.
Chapter Four
The erosion of democracy.
Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the silencing of Black civic infrastructure aren’t separate problems. They are three sides of the same strategy: engineer the electorate so the outcome is decided before a single ballot is cast.
When representation is manufactured instead of earned, the people governing stop answering to the people governed. Policy stops responding to what communities need. And the shared belief that democracy can work — the belief that keeps people showing up — starts to break.
This is what erosion looks like. Not a single dramatic moment. A steady narrowing of who gets to participate, and whose participation counts.
What Now?
The fight is already happening.
In every state where these tactics are being deployed, communities are pushing back — in courtrooms, in statehouses, at school board meetings, at the ballot box, and on the ground.
March On PAC has endorsed 70+ candidates nationwide who are running on protecting voting rights, restoring fair representation, and rebuilding the civic infrastructure that democracy depends on. NNPA / Black Press USA — the 230+ Black-owned newspapers of the National Newspaper Publishers Association — has been documenting this fight inside Black America for more than a century.
The State We’re In exists to follow that fight, state by state, from the ground up — and to build the infrastructure that sustains it. This is not a 2026 midterm project. It is a long-term commitment to spotlighting the organizers, institutions, and communities building power that will last well into 2028 and beyond.