Anger, confusion as Louisiana Republicans move to erase majority-Black US House district
Key takeaways
- On Friday, more than six decades later, Tate told Republican state lawmakers that their proposal to dismantle at least one majority-Black congressional district brought back harrowing memories.
- For more than eight hours, Black members of Congress, pastors, activists and voters delivered testimony that was at times emotional, angry and deeply personal.
- “Let him speak!” they chanted at one point, after Republican committee Chairman Caleb Kleinpeter cut the microphone of a Democratic colleague in the middle of a fiery exchange.
Why this matters: local context for readers following news across Pakistan and the region.
Add ARY News on Google AAResize As a child, Leona Tate was one of the “New Orleans Four,” the first Black students to desegregate a public school in the deep South, enduring racial slurs and death threats as armed US Marshals escorted them to class.
On Friday, more than six decades later, Tate told Republican state lawmakers that their proposal to dismantle at least one majority-Black congressional district brought back harrowing memories.
“I need you to understand what it feels like to stand here, to have walked through that mob as a child, and to now watch elected officials do the same thing that mob was trying to do – just with better suits and a parliamentary procedure,” Tate told a senate committee hearing at the state capitol in Baton Rouge.