Following the successful 2023 organizing and litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Allen v. Milligan, the Legal Defense Fund, Alabama Forward and Alabama Values worked to ensure that the community would take advantage of the new opportunity presented by the new maps. Alabama’s redrawn congressional map resulted in an additional district that could give Black residents greater representation in Congress. In May 2025, in a rare move, federal judges also noted they will consider further remedies, including possibly returning Alabama to “preclearance.”
In 2024, SIF grantees and their partners continued to educate their constituencies about the new congressional district boundaries and on the importance of leveraging their newly-bolstered civic power. Alabama Forward ran its most extensive field program to seize this moment and opportunity of now having two congressional districts where Black voters could have a chance to elect candidates of choice, both up for election during the Presidential election year. Alabama Forward hired a field team to support their table partners with turf coordination, utilized data to identify target populations in specific counties and precincts, supported table partners in creating their own field plans, and provided tech support to partners to develop their data infrastructure.
At the same time, SIF grantees had success organizing and litigating against S.B. 1, a new attack on Alabamans’ voting rights, which suppresses the vote by criminalizing certain types of voter assistance. In September 2024, a Federal Court granted a preliminary injunction preventing the enforcement of S.B.1 for voters with disabilities thanks to a successful challenge by the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, Greater Birmingham Ministries, and other plaintiffs (represented by Legal Defense Fund, Campaign Legal Center, and co-counsel).
