National headlines have focused on Congressional redistricting over the past couple weeks since the Supreme Court’s Callais v. Louisiana decision. Nowhere has felt the impact more than Tennessee. Its one majority Black discrict that included the majority Black city of Memphis was dismantled to form a new district that would be majority white. This is likely to result in no Black representation in Congress from Tennessee. Huge protests erupted at the State Capitol in Nashville. Yet the Tennessee legislature approved the redistricting even as the Republican majoriy leader claimed not to know that Memphis is a majority Black city or that the previous Congressional district was majority Black. Visitors in the gallery broke into laughter at this obvious lie. In a televised interview, state Rep. Justin Jones made the following insightful and disturbing comment, “I walked into the capitol on Thursday in 2026, and when I walked out at the end of the session it was pre-1965.”
That interview is posted below as part of a larger story that includes a superb summary of the pivotal role that Tennessee has played in the struggle for racial justice. Please take the time to watch the entire video. I consider it to be one of the best examples of the essential connection between the past and present in our nation’s racial history. After viewing it, I was reminded of a recent article by the Black writer and theologian Dr. Jemar Tisby. The following quote from the article is a clear challenge and call to any of us who want to honor the witness and sacrifice of those in the modern Civil Rights Movement by recognizing and committing to engage in the ongoing struggle for racial justice today:
So many people today say,
- “If I was there during the Civil Rights movement, I would have marched with Dr. King. I would have boycotted. I would have protested.”
- Well, we are living through the 21st century Civil Rights movement.
- What you are doing now is exactly what you would have done then.
- Are you avoiding the news, going about your daily life, and ignoring what’s happening? That’s what you would have done when Black people were being turned away from the polls in the 50s and 60s.
- Are you hiding behind ‘both sides’ language instead of taking a stand? You would have been part of the “moderates” that MLK wrote about in the Letter from Birmingham Jail.
- Are you more upset by protest tactics that disrupt your sense of civility than by the injustices that made those protests necessary? Then you would have been among those calling for patience, gradualism, and “order” instead of demanding immediate justice.
- Are you organizing, donating, showing up, and helping people take action? Then you would be among the number who were on the right side of justice and who we look to for today.
This challenge and call is urgent for those of us who know that racial justice is an essential aspect of following the Way of Jesus.