Chicago, IL– 30 Chicago community members from the South and West sides gathered at the office of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression on Saturday, August 15 for an event discussing the widespread attacks on Black political power and Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s (FRSO) political line on the struggle to defend voting rights.

In late April, the Supreme Court struck a fatal blow to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, ruling that states could redraw congressional districts in a way that reduces Black voting power, as long as they say the racist outcomes aren’t intentional. The decision, called Louisiana v. Callais, was a major attack in a larger Trump offensive against the political power of Black people.

The program covered the history of African American struggle for voting rights in the United States, analyzed the current wave of attacks and racist redistricting, and explored Freedom Road’s line on the African American national question.

Frank Chapman, representing the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, described the history of the struggle for the African American right to vote in the context of the U.S. and explained the significance of the Reconstruction period following the Civil War.

“It was during this period that Black people expressed the right to vote,” Chapman said. “They elected members to Congress, sheriffs and constables, justices of the peace and mayors.”

After World War II, the Black Liberation Movement grew in the deep South into the historic Civil Rights struggle that culminated with what Chapman called the “Civil Rights Revolution.”

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 once again set the nation upon a course of addressing the question of the oppression of Black people and recognizing the agency of Black people to end their oppression,” he said.

After the history lesson, FRSO member Tulsi McDaniels presented an analysis of the particular attacks on Black voters in key Southern states, suggesting that the racist redistricting that followed the Callais decision represents the greatest rollback in political power since the end of Reconstruction.

In Tennessee, for example, Republicans redrew the state map to eliminate the only Black-majority district that has existed in the state since Reconstruction. In response, Black legislators and community members fought back with a protest and sit-in at the Tennessee capitol building in Nashville in May, McDaniels said.

Dr. Dorothy Nairne, one of the plaintiffs in the Callais case, joined the program over Zoom to share more about the fight against Black voter suppression in her home state of Louisiana. Nairne has seen the Black population in Louisiana growing over the past decade, reaching two-thirds of the state population, often in territories where Black people were once held as slaves, she said.

“If we are two-thirds of the state, that means we should have two districts that have the chance to vote for the person of our choice,” Nairne said.

Louisiana is ranked worst in the country on many metrics, including incarceration, air quality and economic opportunities, all of which affect the Black population at higher rates, she said.

“Our lives are on the line in Louisiana,” she said. “We need some change here. When we vote and we have a candidate that supports us and a candidate that looks like us, things can change.”

Reverend Patricia Williams spoke next, connecting the struggle to defend voting rights with the fight for community control of the police in Chicago. Williams is a co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and has lived in Chicago for over 60 years.

“The Proud Boys and hate groups are on the police force,” Williams said. “We don’t know when our children go out the door if they’re going to get back in. We have to vote. We have to have power over our communities and power over the police.”

To close, FRSO member Kobi Guillory presented on how the struggle to defend voting rights connects to Freedom Road’s strategy for revolution. A core issue is Black political power and self-determination for the African American nation, he said.

“There is a tiny group of people called monopoly capitalists who steal from the majority of the world,” Guillory said. “Our strategy is to unite everyone who can be united against the monopoly capitalists.”

A crucial part of that united front is the African American nation, he said. FRSO understands a nation to be a stable, historically constituted group of people with a common language, territory, economic base and culture, which describes Black people in the U.S. South.

Just like in a marriage, if one party doesn’t have the agency to separate, the relationship is not free and equal, Guillory said. “FRSO supports full equality and self-determination for the Black nation, up to and including secession.”

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