MEMPHIS, TN– For 21 years, Steve Fowler and Sam Wilson have been performing together in a band on Memphis’ famous Beale Street. For the past decade, the men have been neighbors on a quiet, leafy street.
But as of Thursday, they will not be casting the same ballot even though they live across the street from each other.
This is because Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature Redrawing the congressional district in Memphiswhich has long enjoyed its own seat in the Democratic-leaning U.S. House of Representatives. And now the city It split into three Republican-leaning districtsits majority-black population is divided and connected to mostly white, rural and conservative communities along lines that radiate from the Fowler and Wilson neighborhoods of East Memphis.
A line runs down the middle of the street, putting Fowler in the 8th Congressional District, which extends hundreds of miles into middle Tennessee across dozens of counties. Wilson’s district was assigned to the 9th District, which stretches across most of the state’s southern border before curving to include Nashville’s largely white, affluent suburbs.
“I think it’s terrible,” said Fowler, who is white. “Not only will this be bad for blacks in Memphis, but poor whites in these new districts will also be unserved. How are any of these members of Congress going to serve all these different districts?”
Redrawn by Decision by the conservative majority in the US Supreme Court This may be it The death knell for representation in Congress From predominantly black southern communities like Memphis.
For 60 years, providing teacher Voting Rights Act Map makers were required to prove that they did not discriminate against racial minorities in how they drew districts, often resulting in political boundaries that allowed some minority communities to vote for their preferred representative rather than having their votes diluted by the white majority surrounding them.
The rule had its greatest impact in Southern states, where neighboring black and white communities remain deeply polarized in partisan politics.
On April 29, The judges have severely weakened this requirementruling that the way the courts handled the matter improperly introduced racial issues into redistricting in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Republicans across the South immediately seized the opportunity to redraw their maps before the November election to remove as many Democratic and minority-controlled congressional seats as possible.
Tennessee’s legislature was the first in a GOP-controlled state to finalize a new map. But she is one of Several southern states — among them Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina — have become embroiled in a broader partisan redistricting contest sweeping the country.
Republicans have long complained that the Voting Rights Act prevented them from doing to black-majority Democratic districts what Democrats do in states they control in white, conservative-leaning rural areas – Distract their voters for partisan gain. That’s what Tennessee Republicans did in their 2021 primary congressional map for the state’s other big reservoir of Democrats in Nashville, where they didn’t have to tread carefully because that city is majority white.
“Tennessee is a conservative state and our congressional delegation must reflect that,” said Republican state Sen. John Stevens, who sponsored a bill creating a new map that would make all nine congressional districts solidly Republican.
Wilson, a black musician from Memphis, was less bothered that his neighborhood was divided for partisan purposes. He saw the move as just another trial facing the city next A wave of federal agents Sent by President Donald Trump to fight crime and Amidst stories about the safety of Memphis From neighboring suburbs and Republican state legislators.
“It’s a fast-paced society. We’re going to make ends meet for our families,” Wilson said. “Memphis’ legacy is music and our civil rights history,” he said, adding that the two are intertwined. “Hard times mean you’re going to be trying to find your talent. This is what we do here; Music in Memphis is a way of life.”
The Memphis district predates the Voting Rights Act. For at least a century, before Congress moved to protect minority voting rights, Tennessee thought it made sense for its Mississippi River city to have its own district in the U.S. House of Representatives. But since this law was passed in 1965, anyone who tries to divide the district for partisan gain has been able to be prosecuted and the maps overturned. Now, legal experts say that doesn’t pose a significant risk.
However, Democrats and civil rights groups are suing to block the map. The symbolism is particularly acute because the city is home to National Civil Rights Museumbuilt around the hotel where The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated In 1968. When the Legislature passed the new maps, Democrats and protesters chanted “Hands off Memphis!” They waved signs accusing Republicans of bringing back Jim Crow.
“Memphis is not just a city; it holds a central place in the national story of our pursuit of racial justice in this country, and how over time we have increasingly achieved civil, voting, and economic rights for all Americans,” said Eric Holder, a former U.S. attorney general who chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. “Black citizens protested, marched and died there for the right to vote.”
Memphis has faced dual stories in recent years. Billions of dollars in private investment Federal dollars have flowed into the region in recent years, but many local businesses still express concerns about the regional economy’s lag.
Residents who spoke with The Associated Press expressed concerns about safety and public services but were angered by stereotypes about rampant crime. The twin stories often play out in the river city, where potholed streets stretch from empty storefronts to ornate neighborhoods filled with mansions and leafy college campuses just blocks away.
The city has long had a contentious relationship with the rest of the state, which voted for Trump in 2024 by a nearly 2-1 margin.
Nashville’s conservative legislature repeatedly clashed with Memphis and accused its leaders of widespread mismanagement. The legislature passed a law blocking many of Memphis’ police reform efforts that were put in place after the events of 1930 Tyr Nichols diesan unarmed black man, was killed by city officers in 2023. Another measure passed Control of the Memphis Airport Board of Directors and other cities across the state, and gave the state’s attorney general, also a Republican, the power to remove the elected Memphis district attorney.
“The state Legislature is trying to take it over,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a white Democrat who continues to represent the city in Congress until the new lines are implemented after the midterm elections. “Which is ridiculous. Partly because it’s a majority black city.”
Thomas Goodman, a professor of politics and law at Rhodes College in Memphis, notes that the new congressional districts may lead to more friction over who receives attention — and funding — from lawmakers. Memphis residents will soon be sharing territories with Republican cities with starkly different economies, geographies and demographics. Whoever holds those seats in Congress will have an incentive to care about those voters, not the people of Memphis.
“It will not only deprive Black Tennesseans of adequate representation,” Goodman said. “These changes also divide the City of Memphis as an entity into multiple districts, thus removing the dedicated agent in government who knows the people, understands their concerns and can speak on their behalf and advance their interests and desires.”
Chris Wiley’s home is located on what, before this week, was a quiet downtown Memphis street filled with duplexes, lawns and sports fields. Now his neighborhood is divided at the intersection of three congressional districts. That’s not surprising, he said, because “Tennessee is about the dollar,” not the population.
“Memphis is majority black, so if you mess with that, what’s the point of voting in Tennessee?” said Wiley, a 29-year-old black worker at the sports field. “Whatever the Congress numbers are, whatever that may be, we don’t consider the bar to be high anyway.”
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Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and AP video editor Sophie Bates contributed to this report.