Newark, New Jersey protest against attack on voting rights

The People’s Organization for Progress (POP), a longtime ally in struggles against racism, white supremacy and imperialist wars, organized a spirited two-hour picket line and rally in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Newark, New Jersey, on May 13, 2026. The rally protested the recent racist U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting Black voting rights in Louisiana by allowing new voting maps favoring majority white redistricting. This decision has emboldened racist-dominated state legislatures in Mississippi, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and other Southern states to follow in Louisiana’s footsteps.

POP Chairperson Lawrence Hamm compared this recent SCOTUS ruling, which targeted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857, which denied citizenship to Black people and held that enslaved people were property under the Fifth Amendment.

Many community groups and unions attended the action, including NAACP Newark, American Federation of Government Employees Local 93, AFSCME District 1199J, Sophia Inclusive Community, Muslim League of Voters of New Jersey, Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, New Jersey, Communities for Accountable Policing, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and Veterans For Peace.

All power to the people!