Letter to the Editor: Jim Crow continues to evolve
Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Can someone please explain the recent Supreme Court Callias v. Louisiana decision for me? It has something to do with a “stop the steal” social media influencer and Jan. 6th insurrectionist, MAGA-billy named Phillip Callais, who was conveniently selected to be the legal plaintiff in a Louisiana voting district gerrymandering dispute.
It sounds as if SCOTUS’s decision will no longer allow two of Louisiana’s six congressional districts to be majority-minority districts reflecting the state’s 2020 census demographics and in alignment with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
I understand that the federal court decisions leading up to the SCOTUS ruling were contradictory and twisted. More proof that any law school student at the bottom of his or her graduating class with the help of wealthy donors can tailor a convincing pro or con argument on most any legal matter. I could have been that law student.
Historians and sociologists can persuasively argue how society actually functions. Historical and sociological factors should have been considered in the narrow SCOTUS Callias decision.
The South has a notorious history of circumventing civil rights laws that it doesn’t agree with. It seems the anti-democratic Callais petition is another fine (note sarcasm) example.
The South’s response to SCOTUS’s Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka decision to mandate school integration was to open private segregated academies (many were so-called Christian) that continue to exist today. Many of these academies are funded by tuition grants, vouchers, tax advantages and with state support for school choice to benefit white families.
One can draw parallels between the Brown and Callais decisions. The southern states have become sophisticated at creating systems that may arguably be technically race-neutral while still producing racially unequal outcomes. Inferior segregated public schools for Black children continued after the Brown decision and as we are seeing now in the zealous rush by southern states to unilaterally gerrymander voting districts after the Callias decision.
Sometimes when I am TV channel-surfing, I will purposefully stop to glance at a college basketball game. I take a cursory survey. One or both schools are in the south. Nine or ten of the players on the court happen to be Black, while the fans, bandmembers and cheerleaders are white. Is this selective integration a coincidence? Or is this a true reflection of how Black athletes have become central to the prestige and wealth of southern universities, while the Black representation in the broader institutions in America continue to persistently lag behind? Contextual evidence of broader racial disparities? You think? Institutions can routinely integrate in highly visible ways while inequalities persist everywhere else.
SCOTUS’s Callais decision is obviously less about truth and fairness and more about the rabid protection of a selected class of voter, crushing the Black vote and giving Republicans a clear advantage.
The Civil Rights Act continues to struggle and has often persisted through a rigged race-neutral system. SCOTUS’s obtuse, unsatisfactory bad faith decision will only intensify the struggle.
Stanley McKie
Enumclaw
