Thompson says SCOTUS Callais ruling “equivalent to a second Civil War”

• Calls are growing for Mississippi to redistrict ahead of the November midterms. Congressman Bennie Thompson says, “In South Africa, they say, ‘a luta continua,’ the struggle continues and we will continue to fight.”

Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson went on Al Sharpton’s MS NOW “Politics Nation” this week to compare the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais to a second Civil War.

“This is equivalent to a second Civil War,” Thompson told Sharpton in response to the host’s promoting of what the ruling means to “black Southern lawmakers.”

The nation’s highest court handed down a 6-3 ruling last week that deemed racial gerrymandering unconstitutional as it had been practiced under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act for the last 60 years.

The impact of the ruling will have far-reaching implications, especially in southern states like Mississippi where racially motivated groups such as the NAACP, SPLC, and ACLU, supported by the state Democratic Party, have for decades challenged redistricting efforts, forcing multiple rounds of redrawing district maps to elevate black populations in select areas. The Court now says there must be proof of intentional racial discrimination in the drawing of these district maps, raising the bar for such challenges.

Every voting district in Mississippi, from school boards to city councils, county supervisors to state legislators, judicial seats to Congress, have been forced to consider racial quotas when drawing districts, meaning all could be up for redistricting at some point in the near future.

Thompson, a Democrat who has served in Congress for over 30 years, told Sharpton that under the Voting Rights Act, “we were able to craft a district” that allowed for a black member of Congress. He said black “communities of interest were consolidated and not divided” under the prior interpretation of Section 2, resulting in “further growth of black influence in the blackest part of America.”

Now, the SPLC-backed Thompson is calling on the black community to fight the system.

“We’re gonna have to get our act together, we’re gonna have to resist with every fiber in our body,” Thompson said. “We’re gonna have to take this system on at every election.”

Sharpton then asked Thompson if his seat was at risk.

“No question about it,” the congressman responded.

Prominent Republicans across Mississippi and nationally, even some in White House circles, are urging Governor Tate Reeves (R) and legislative leaders in the state House and Senate to take up congressional redistricting during the approaching special session called to address Mississippi’s Supreme Court districts. Advocates say now is the time to handle the issue before the midterms, while others warn that doing so could face legal hurdles as congressional primary elections have already been held in Mississippi.

Going forward, Thompson concluded by saying, “For the new generation of people, they have to understand that the same struggle that got us to this point, if they take it back, the struggle will continue. In South Africa, they say, ‘a luta continua,’ the struggle continues and we will continue to fight.”