EGA President and CEO
As you are no doubt aware, the Roberts Supreme court decision in Louisiana v. Callais is an intentional escalation of the erosion of democracy. The decision misdirects the spirit of the law to subvert its intent and effectively undercuts the reach of the Voting Rights Act.
With great effort, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in 1965. The Act was a legal, political, and moral response to a systemic campaign of terror which subjected citizens to racially motivated tests, financial thresholds, and psychological and bodily harm to access the basic franchise of elections.. The Voting Rights Act reversed legalized withholding of the rights of the electorate from African Americans which had been held back under Jim Crow as a privilege to defend White supremacy. The need for the Act was fomented by the infamous attack on men, women, and children by state police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama on March 7, 1965.
The violent response to protest and civic exercise gave the campaign for rights a broad national audience for vicious norms of violence and inhumane treatment. Thereafter known as “Bloody Sunday,” the attack was one of three (3) events in the Selma-to-Montgomery March program that was designed to make public the constant violations of human, civil and civic voting rights that were common in the U.S. South. The gruesome scene of state violence was televised, dozens of activists were hospitalized with life-altering injuries. The responses to these marches spurred Congress into action, leading to the signing of the Voting Rights Act.
On Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in the Louisiana v. Callais case, Justice John Roberts’ Supreme Court reversed the gains of the act to expand the reality of access to voting by holding that a Louisiana congressional map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because it recognizes race. This ruling ignores the proven harms of racial discrimination and the effects of a forced dysfunction of democracy to achieve the common good. The ruling provides grounds and legal cover for other states to misconstrue the history, erase the need, and to act to draw lies around people based on the decision. The Supreme Court has diluted the voting power of racialized communities in favor of a false race neutrality with racist effect.
As an African American whose grandparents hail from Selma, Alabama, and the Carolinas, it is not lost on me that the time of normalized discrimination, state violence and fractured media is both past and present. I offer a moment of silence out of respect for those advocates, allies, organizers, marchers, supporters and the public who fought, campaigned, and protested to create the conditions for the Voting Rights Act. Until now it stands as one of the most significant laws in the history of the nation. Many of us have lived our lives in the sunshine of their labor and in a commonly held belief in fairness, the rule of law and a government apparatus capable of holding our shared vision of democracy.
While federal divestment continues to orchestrate the dismantling of civil society, grantmakers must continue to steadfastly hold real values for a healthy democracy that can sustain a healthy planet. Grantmakers cannot do it all but grantmakers can resource communities who embody and possess the torch of liberty and justice handed down from our ancestors. It is now our collective duty to remain vigilant and courageous in the present for future generations.
I invite you to take a moment to pause and reflect (rather than flee) in this moment, and to mindfully hold the ones you love in your conscience amidst the trying times. As you read this, you are taking a collective breath. Whatever else you need, you first need to breathe to move the work forward.
As an Association of environmental grantmakers, we have committed to resourcing you with demonstrable evidence of the ways this community is resisting the cowardice of silence in favor of unwavering racial equity that aligns with planetary momentum.
I invite you to take heart and make plans to stay connected to your peers as they support humans targeted in response to the landmark decision. As always, EGA remains your steadfast partner and resource and offers trusted information to support your decisions in this next chapter.