Terri Sewell

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Selma, took issue with Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asserting that Black voters would be “better off” with Republicans.

“Bless his heart. Black voters don’t need Steve Marshall to tell us what’s best for us,” Sewell said on X.

“We can think and vote for ourselves, and we are prepared to send a message to lawmakers in Montgomery who seek to diminish our voting power: We are NOT going back!!!”

Marshall made the remarks Tuesday during an appearance on The Rightside radio show amid the state GOP’s ongoing efforts to prepare congressional and state senate maps that would effectively weaken Black voting power.

Last week’s 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act’s requirement that districts be drawn to give minority voters a chance to elect representatives of their choosing, according to The Associated Press.

“The districts represented by Democratic congress members would probably be better off right now with some conservative voices being able to help their communities,” Marshall said.

In 2023, the Supreme Court decided in Allen v. Milligan that Alabama’s new, legislature-drawn map violated the Voting Rights Act.

That decision led to Alabama’s current map, which sent two Black officials from the state to Congress for the first time.

Alabama attempted to appeal but a three judge panel in 2025 enjoined the state from using the maps that were struck down.

Since the decision in Louisiana v. Callais, Marshall and the GOP have sought to expedite a ruling from the Supreme Court that would permit Alabama to use a blocked congressional map.

Alabama’s GOP supermajority is already advancing a bill to hold a second primary for certain congressional districts this summer, contingent upon a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court.

Marshall also filed an emergency motion Monday with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, asking it to vacate or pause district court injunctions blocking Alabama from a 2021 state senate map.

“Throughout the South we have record numbers of minority voter participation in our elections,” he said.

“Which shows that those impediments we were concerned about when the Voting Rights Act was passed are no longer in play...The issue is whether Democrats can win.”

But Sewell, other Black Democrats and Black voters gathered in Montgomery Tuesday, contending that the moves from Alabama’s Republican Party are reminiscent of the state’s racist past and policy to limit Black voting power.

“People shed blood on a bridge in my home town,” Sewell, from Selma, said.

“John Lewis was beaten. Head, skull, cracked, for the right to vote. So many of us have worked to try to improve the image of Alabama, so that we can attract industries like Mercedes, Honda, all the others. Our reputation was one of racism. And what we’re doing now, in the name of party, is taking away Black votes.”