Key facts
- Memphis, with a population of 630,000, is 63% Black.
- Memphis accounted for 78% of the former District 9's population.
- The new districts group pieces of Memphis with rural and suburban Tennesseans.
The city of Memphis, Tennessee, has been split into three congressional districts under a new map, a move that divides residents from their neighbors and groups them with voters across the state who may have different needs and interests. This redistricting follows a similar strategy used four years prior in Nashville, where Republicans redrew maps to easily prevail in districts that had previously voted overwhelmingly Democratic for decades.
Civil rights activists argue that Tennessee's new congressional districts, which now favor Republicans, are a testing ground for dismantling voting rights protections nationwide. They contend that such partisan map-drawing dilutes the voting power of communities of color, a practice historically intertwined with racism and political power, particularly in southern states.