The Return of Jim Crow

In this powerful episode of 'It Could Happen Here,' host Mia Wong delivers a searing critique of the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Louisiana v. Calais, which fundamentally undermines the Voting Rights Act by requiring plaintiffs to prove racist intent rather than focusing on discriminatory results. The decision enables states like Louisiana and Alabama to redraw congressional maps in ways that dilute Black voting power—effectively resurrecting the structural disenfranchisement of Jim Crow-era voter suppression. Wong argues that this ruling isn't just a legal setback but a political and moral collapse, enabling Republican-led gerrymandering under the guise of partisan redistricting while openly targeting Black communities. She highlights how the Court’s shadow docket allowed Alabama to re-gerrymander just days before an election, despite prior rulings finding their map explicitly racially motivated. Wong frames this as a deliberate effort to dismantle multiracial democracy and restore white supremacist control over American politics, calling it one of the bleakest moments in U.S. history. She concludes with a stark warning: if you’ve ever wondered what you’d do in Nazi Germany or Jim Crow America, the answer is clear—your current inaction is complicity.