Tennessee GOP Undermines Black Representation by Splitting Memphis Congressional District
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The Republican-dominated Tennessee Legislature has fractured the state’s majority-Black 9th Congressional District, stretching it far beyond Memphis. This blatant act of racial gerrymandering has sparked outrage and debate over the erosion of Black political power ahead of the midterm primaries.
In a move widely condemned by civil rights advocates, the Tennessee Legislature, controlled by Republicans, approved a new congressional map in May that surgically divided the 9th District. Once a unified, majority-Black district centered on Memphis, it has now been carved up and merged into a sprawling, predominantly white district that reaches toward Nashville. This follows a Supreme Court ruling that gutted protections for majority-Black districts under the Voting Rights Act, giving cover for this attack on Black representation.
Incumbent Representative Steve Cohen, who has championed the district since 2007, announced he will not seek re-election, citing the unmanageable size of the new district and his own health concerns. Local activists and community leaders have voiced deep disappointment, condemning the redistricting as a calculated move to dilute the voting power of Memphis’s Black community and undermine their voice in Congress.
"What frustrates the average voter about the redistricting is not simply that you had your district cracked, or that you had your vote power diluted," said Rev. Earle Fisher, senior pastor at Memphis’ Abyssinian Baptist Church.
"It’s that you know that in the process of doing this, the will of the majority of the people in your area is not going to be honored," Fisher added, highlighting the disregard for democracy and racial justice.
Democratic candidates, including state Rep. Justin Pearson, are fighting to keep the seat in progressive hands, while some voters are rallying behind mayor Chaz Molder’s campaign in the neighboring 5th District, determined to preserve any semblance of Democratic representation in Congress. There are mounting concerns that federal resources will now be diverted away from Memphis’s Black communities and toward the rural, whiter areas of the new district.
Republican officials, unashamed, defended the map as a fair reflection of Tennessee’s population, ignoring the clear racial and partisan motivations behind the redistricting. House Speaker Cameron Sexton pointed to the Supreme Court decision as justification, further exposing the willingness of the GOP to exploit legal loopholes to entrench their power at the expense of minority voters.