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Editor’s Note: This blog is a special edition piece written by Margaret Huang, the president and chief executive officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center, during the days leading up to Alabama Forward’s inaugural Democracy: Now or Never event. The event, held on Saturday, June 3rd, was a celebration of democracy, freedom, arts & culture, and our communities across the state – and of the constant fight groups and individuals here in Alabama take on every day to protect the very things that were being celebrated.

Democracy was fought for and won in Alabama almost 60 years ago. But now, in the very same place where civil rights activists secured voting rights for all, we’re facing the possibility of losing our democracy again.

To understand how we got here, we have to look back 10 years ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a devastating decision out of Alabama, eviscerated the heart of the Voting Rights Act — a law that had arguably been one of the most successful civil rights laws in our history. In 1970, five years after its passage, nearly as many Black Americans were registered to vote in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina as had been registered in the entire century before 1965.

That success ended with Shelby County v. Holder. Within just 24 hours of the Supreme Court’s decision, states like Alabama and Mississippi began enforcing restrictive and racially discriminatory voter ID laws. Other states soon followed.

Since the 2020 election in particular, Republicans in the South and across the country have proposed hundreds of bills to silence the voices and votes of Black, Brown, and Native voters, voters with disabilities, young people, and others pushed to the margins. And let’s be clear: These attempts to stifle voting rights by cutting ballot drop boxes, intimidating voters with so-called election police, and requiring voter IDs, among other tactics, are about power and control. They’re about who gets to shape the world we live in and who is seen, heard, and valued in our democracy.

Here in Alabama, we experienced a painful reminder of what it means to be shut out of the rooms where decisions are made — and how that exclusion is felt through generations. After the state was devastated by deadly tornadoes and storms in January, residents, especially in predominantly Black communities, were largely unable to access critical needs like medication, baby formula, electricity, and safe shelter.

As we see all too often, the natural disaster was compounded by human disaster. The barriers to people meeting their needs — including a lack of transportation and access to affordable health care and temporary housing — were the result of decades of disgraceful policy decisions that further entrenched systemic racism and economic inequality. We know that as more climate disasters occur, the consequences will continue to fall hardest on Black, Brown, low-income, and rural communities in the South. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With our vote, we can usher in a new way of caring for each other and our communities.

Julian Bond, the late civil rights leader and SPLC’s first president, once said that the right to vote was a tool for making meaningful gains, “the gains that fill bellies and build homes and schools.” Moving toward a future where people have the resources and support they deserve — a future of justice, equity, and liberation — will require our vigilance. It will require that we show up for democracy and for each other with a fierce determination to make our voices heard.

Because now, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Shelby County decision, all eyes are again on the Supreme Court — and Alabama. The Court is set to rule this month on a case about whether Alabama’s new congressional maps were deliberately drawn to diminish the political power of the state’s Black residents. If they uphold the maps, the Court will land yet another blow to the Voting Rights Act.

Never in modern times have officials tried so hard to take away our right to vote — and never has it been more important that we exercise that right. To save our vote, we have to cast our vote.

There is so much power and potential in the South. Our region is ripe for transformational change. These attempts by politicians to undermine our freedom reflect their fear of losing power. Because they are losing power. All of us — as people of color, as people of diverse genders, as people of differing abilities, and as people deeply committed to our democracy and the right to vote — are winning. Together, let’s continue to speak truth to power, and let’s vote up and down the ballot, especially in local and state races. When we organize collectively, and when we harness the power of our voices, we can win democracy back in Alabama and beyond.