00:03A hearing over redistricting boiled over into chaos at the Louisiana State Capitol Friday
00:08as security blocked the president of the state's chapter of the NAACP,
00:13the largest civil rights organization in the U.S.,
00:15from entering the hearing room while protesters packed the halls outside.
00:19At one point, the Republican committee chairman cut the microphone of a Democratic colleague
00:27mid-exchange, and the crowd erupted.
00:31This was the latest flashpoint in a running battle over redistricting across the United States.
00:37For more than eight hours, black members of Congress, pastors, activists, and voters
00:41had given testimony, at times emotional, angry, and deeply personal.
00:46However, this fight has swung decisively towards Republicans after last week's 6-3 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
00:52A ruling that struck down Louisiana's congressional map,
00:56fighting the state had improperly relied on race when drawing a second-majority black district.
01:02Critics, Friday's protesters among them, say it guts a key Voting Rights Act protection,
01:07opening the door for Republican-led states to eliminate Democratic-majority black districts
01:12long considered legally protected.
01:15We want our voting rights.
01:16We want the right area.
01:18We want the right council in there.
01:19We want the map drawn right.
01:22That is our right.
01:24Okay?
01:25We went through this in the 60s.
01:26We're not doing this no more.
01:28I feel like the last 50 or 60 years of my life, they didn't happen.
01:32We're back to where we were when I was a kid.
01:35On Friday, the committee saw several competing proposals.
01:39That included maps drawn by Republican State Senator Jay Morris that analysts say would give Republicans
01:44five or all six of Louisiana's seats in the U.S. House.
01:48Black voters make up one-third of the state's electorate.
01:52Republicans already control four of the six districts.
01:55Morris said race and party were not factors in drawing his maps.
02:00Democrats and activists disputed that, arguing the result would inevitably dilute black political power.
02:06The hearing also came during wider electoral confusion.
02:09Governor Jeff Landry suspended Louisiana's May 16th U.S. House primaries just two days before early voting was set to
02:17begin,
02:18even though tens of thousands of ballots had already been mailed.
02:21Voters arriving at polling sites found signs on the doors.
02:24The congressional race was canceled.
02:26The ACLU of Louisiana sued to block Landry's suspension.
02:31Sarah Whittington is the group's advocacy director.
02:34So we have a significant black population with significant authority, power, you know, pull across this state.
02:42And to suddenly acknowledge and say that they cannot vote for the person of their choice because we will dilute
02:48that vote,
02:49we will crack their communities of interest, or we will pack them into single districts is extremely problematic.
02:57Landry's office did not respond to a request for comment.
03:00Republicans in Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina have also launched similar efforts to eliminate majority black districts.
03:07Democrats have launched redistricting campaigns of their own.
03:10However, Friday saw a serious blow to those efforts when the Virginia State Supreme Court threw out a new map
03:16approved by voters there
03:17that would likely have flipped four Republican seats in the U.S. House.
03:22U.S. House lawmaker Cleo Fields, a Louisiana Democrat whose own district was ruled unconstitutional,
03:27told the committee Friday that since Reconstruction, Louisiana has elected just four African Americans to Congress.
03:34He had spoken to Reuters in an interview the day before.
03:37The issue is not whether or not Cleo Fields serves another day in Congress.
03:42It's really whether or not a person who looks like me have the opportunity to serve in Congress.
03:48And listen, there'll be another court, another Supreme Court opinion, and it's going to, you know, it will invalidate this
03:55one.
03:55There'll be another Congress.
03:57Congress will pass a law that has teeth and leave nothing for the interpretation for the courts.
04:06And we'll get beyond this.
04:08What the new map will look like and when Louisianans will next go to the polls for Congress remains to
04:14be decided.
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