James Clyburn has represented South Carolina in Congress for three decades, a singular achievement in a state that has elected only one Black lawmaker to that office since Reconstruction ended in 1897. Now Republican leaders, emboldened by a Supreme Court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act, are moving to redraw his district out of existence.
The sixth congressional district stretches across the state in a deliberate configuration that has become increasingly rare in American politics. It begins near the Georgia border in Savannah's suburbs, winds north through Charleston's wealthy commercial corridors and the Gullah Geechee cultural homeland, then extends another 115 miles inland through Black belt farmland to Columbia. The district encompasses two historically Black colleges, some of the nation's poorest counties, and the state's ornate capitol building.
What makes the district remarkable is its origin: a compromise struck in 1990 between Black Democratic leaders and South Carolina's Republican establishment. That year, as Democrats hemorrhaged white voters following the civil rights era, the state's Black caucus made a direct proposition to Republicans. They would support a Republican-drawn map in exchange for one congressional district where Black voters held the majority. Republicans accepted, betting they could use redistricting to cement their takeover of state government while containing Black political power in a single seat.
The gamble paid off handsomely. Within a decade, Democrats vanished from power in South Carolina as white voters abandoned the party. Republicans now control all but one of the state's seven congressional seats. Clyburn, elected in 1993, proved to be far more consequential than most analysts expected. He rose to become the Democratic Party's majority whip, served as a kingmaker in presidential races, and secured federal funding for the state's rural broadband, highway improvements, and poverty relief programs.
President Trump explicitly called on South Carolina Republicans to dismantle Clyburn's district after the Supreme Court gutted protections in the Voting Rights Act that had previously blocked racial discrimination in redistricting. Governor Henry McMaster convened a special legislative session to consider the proposal, which began Friday. An initial push stalled Tuesday, but Republican leaders signaled the effort would continue.
Shane Massey, the state Senate's majority leader, offered a rare moment of candor when he rejected an immediate redistricting vote. Removing Democratic voters from the sixth district could backfire on Republicans in competitive neighboring races, he suggested, potentially costing them seats they currently hold. The political calculation shifted in ways the 1990 deal did not anticipate.
The district's demographics have evolved significantly. While it was drawn with a Black majority, Census data now shows the Black population at roughly 46 percent. Manufacturing growth and an influx of conservative retirees from other states have altered the political composition. What seemed like a permanent arrangement three decades ago looks increasingly fragile.
Clyburn responded to the threat with defiance. He likened the redistricting push to creating "Jim Crow 2.0" and pledged to run regardless of the district's final boundaries. Critics from across the political spectrum weighed in. Some Black activists argued the original 1990 deal conceded too much territory to Republicans and hastened the Democratic collapse. Others, like activist Jessica Thomas, pointed to what she saw as an unresolved reckoning with South Carolina's racial history that keeps surfacing through episodes like this one.
Younger voters expressed dismay. Damien Barber, a political science graduate who protested the redistricting proposal outside the state legislature, noted the disconnect between Clyburn's statewide influence and the relative obscurity of other representatives. Clyburn authored the legislation that created the Congaree National Park in his district, Barber pointed out, an achievement most of his colleagues could not match.
Author James Rodriguez: "What began as a tactical compromise to contain Black political power in 1990 has become the thing Republicans now want to destroy, all because a Supreme Court ruling gave them cover to do it. The real scandal is not the gerrymander itself, but how brazenly they're abandoning the deal when it no longer serves their interests."
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