FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2025 Contact: communications@naacpnet.org
The NAACP, the nation’s largest and most influential civil rights group, filed a lawsuit right this moment in Texas, following the passage of a brand new electoral map that strips Black voters of their political energy.
“Filed in partnership with the Attorneys Committee for Civil Rights Beneath Legislation, the lawsuit contends that Texas has engaged in racial gerrymandering to stop Black voters from electing candidates of their selection.”
“The state of Texas is barely 40 p.c white, however white voters management over 73 p.c of the state’s congressional seats,” stated Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “It’s fairly apparent that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, earlier than subsequent 12 months’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent right here is to scale back the members of Congress who signify Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
Because the Voting Rights Act was adopted, courts have discovered the state of Texas has been discovered to have discriminated in opposition to Black and/or Brown residents after each cycle of redistricting.
“We now see simply how far extremist leaders are keen to go to push African Individuals again towards a time once we had been denied full personhood and equal rights,” stated NAACP Texas President Gary Bledsoe. “We name on Texans of each background to acknowledge the risks of this second. Our democracy will depend on making certain that each individual is counted totally, valued equally, and represented pretty. We’re ready to struggle this injustice at each stage. Our future will depend on it.”
“Racial gerrymandering is just not a brand new tactic in Texas’ playbook. The one distinction this time is the racism is partially masquerading as partisanship. These maps take issues from dangerous to worse, amplifying the profound injustice already skilled by Black communities and different communities of coloration in Texas who’re merely in search of a voice and illustration in politics and in their very own futures,” stated Damon T. Hewitt, president and government director of the Attorneys’ Committee for Civil Rights Beneath Legislation. “The Trump administration informed Texas in no unsure phrases to create unlawful, discriminatory maps, and Texas actively carried out the mandate. That is an deliberately dangerous and discriminatory effort, and we should name it out as such. Black and Brown voters in Texas deserve higher. They’re legally and constitutionally entitled to honest illustration. These maps do the other, and so they should not stand.”
At the moment, the NAACP is urging California, New York, and all different states to behave instantly by redistricting and passing new, lawful, and constitutional electoral maps. We should counter Texas’ unconstitutional transfer and make sure that if all else fails, Black Individuals nonetheless have a voice in Congress.
From the NAACP’s landmark victory within the Supreme Courtroom in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Schooling, all the way in which to right this moment, the NAACP continues to struggle for democracy in court docket.
Lately, our legal professionals acted swiftly to sue in opposition to Trump’s unconstitutional government order that will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voter, and filed a quick in opposition to Trump’s government order that violates the 14th Modification by making an attempt to strip birthright citizenship from kids born in the USA.
Along with authorized actions — and in response to ongoing measures taken by extremists nationwide to disenfranchise Black residents and oppress our proper to vote — the NAACP additionally not too long ago launched an unprecedented effort to recruit volunteers to knock doorways and register voters greater than a 12 months earlier than the 2026 election.
Introduced completely by CBS Information on August eleventh, the NAACP is internet hosting a sequence of city halls to mobilize Black voters across the nation.
“It could nonetheless appear far-off, however the 2026 midterm elections will decide whether or not our democracy nonetheless holds on or whether or not the folks give up their energy to a king,” NAACP President Derrick Johnsontold CBS Information. “We’ve acquired to start out organizing early.”
About NAACP
The NAACP advocates, agitates, and litigates for the civil rights as a result of Black America. Our legacy is constructed on the inspiration of grassroots activism by the most important civil rights pioneers of the twentieth century and is sustained by twenty first century activists. From school rooms and courtrooms to metropolis halls and Congress, our community of members throughout the nation works to safe the social and political energy that may finish race-based discrimination. That work is rooted in racial fairness, civic engagement, and supportive insurance policies and establishments for all marginalized folks. We’re dedicated to a world with out racism the place Black folks take pleasure in equitable alternatives in thriving communities.
NOTE: The Authorized Protection Fund – additionally known as the NAACP-LDF – was based in 1940 as part of the NAACP, however now operates as a totally separate entity.
