New article from Bolts Magazine reporting on what the likely demise of the Voting Right Act could mean for local governments — specifically in the context of a battle for Black voting power in a rural county in west Tennessee.

The article focuses on the Fayette County’s board of commissioners, whose 19 members are all white despite the county’s large Black population, who are trying to persuade it to reopen and much loved and needed community center.

“Section 2 most of the time has been used at the local level,” says Kevin Morris, a voting policy scholar with the Brennan Center for Democracy. “That is where both the earthquake of Callais might be felt the most strongly, and also where we might be least prepared to identify these changes because of the demise of local media.” 

“It could be like a one-two punch to racial representation at the local level,” Morris added.