Front of mailer. On top of black and white images of civil rights protests reads the text, “Our Ancestors Fought to Represent Us, Now Richmond Politicians are Trying to Take Our Districts Away.” Photo credit: Gerald Higginbotham, taken of a personal mailer he received
by Gerald D. Higginbotham and Channing J. Mathews
Gerald Higginbotham
Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, I grew up seeing voting for Democrats as normal. However, I learned making meaningful change for Black communities required more than just supporting a political party. My mother encouraged political engagement and volunteered as an election worker. My great aunt was a Freedom Rider. I am an assistant professor of public policy and psychology at the University of Virginia. I study how people’s opinions and beliefs about rights like voting are shaped by race, racism and our collective U.S. history. I am expressing my views as a private citizen informed by these experiences.
Channing J. Mathews
Born in Miami, Florida, and raised in Valdosta, Georgia, I was raised to vote as a Democrat. My mother took me with her to vote, and always taught me the importance of demanding accountability from those we elect. My dad had been a poll watcher and supervisor for many years. I am an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Virginia who studies how race, identity and how understandings of inequality shape how Black and Brown youth engage in civic and academic contexts. I am expressing my views as a private citizen informed by these experiences.
Ahead of the April 21, 2026 Special Election, we authors have taken some time to add context to the decision Virginia voters will make regarding a proposal for redistricting. Here is a brief summary of discussion points in this piece to help readers get oriented. The opinions belong to the authors. We highlight:
- A Political Action Committee’s misleading appeal to Jim Crow meant to scare and anger Black Virginians into voting “No” this election;
- Gerrymandering, or manipulative redistricting, as a chronic threat to Black political power. But, how in this election, gerrymandering may provide short-term protections against the national implications of Republican gerrymandering in other states.
- Ways to educate yourself on the stakes of your vote on the redistricting map amendment this month
Throughout this article, we authors link to further readings labeled as “[FR]” for those interested in more detailed information about the sources used below.
Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents have received a wide variety of mailers about the upcoming April 21st special election in Virginia, where we will vote on the following:
Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?
And though this is an important question for consideration, receiving a mailer about Jim Crow and the upcoming special election in Virginia was unexpected, and frankly alarming. In what has now been covered by multiple outlets and criticized by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), both authors of this article received this mailer that specifically targeted Black Virginians.
This mailer evoked guttural memories of the Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow and our Black ancestors. The images of police and the KKK were particularly disturbing. It is hard to mistake the mailer’s intent: to get a visceral and emotional response from Black recipients.
The mailer also had an urgent call to action: vote in opposition to the amendment.
These mailers were sent by a PAC or a Political Action Committee, an organization that collects donations and uses the funds to influence an election outcome. In this case, the sender was the conservative Democracy and Justice PAC, which was established in March 2026 and funded heavily by groups that do not have to report who their money comes from.
The images this PAC used are unsettling and tug at something deep in Black folks’ psychology. And we think that was the intent.
Black people see both voting and fighting racial injustice as core ways to honor our ancestors. [FR] And, on average, Black people are highly perceptive of how racism manifests in U.S. electoral systems today due to our knowledge of historical Black disenfranchisement. [FR] Perceiving that a policy will restrict the voting power of a group can elicit anger, which is highly motivating for civic and voter engagement. [FR, FR]
This deep-rooted psychology is what this mailer attempted to take advantage of.
The mailer’s text and imagery functions to scare and/or anger Black Virginians to be immediately opposed to the proposed amendment or to be confused enough to simply disengage. It honestly confused us, the authors. So together, let’s unpack what we are voting on.
Per the Virginia Department of Elections: [FR]
“The proposed amendment would give the General Assembly the authority to redraw one or more of Virginia’s congressional districts before 2031 in limited circumstances. In the event that another state redraws its own congressional districts before 2031, without being ordered by a court to do so, the General Assembly would then be able to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts. The General Assembly’s power to do so would continue until October 31, 2030, and the Virginia Redistricting Commission would reassume the responsibility of drawing the congressional districts in 2031.”
In short, the ballot is asking if Virginia should keep the current process of redistricting once every 10 years or temporarily change this process in light of the 2026 midterm elections?
A YES vote means that you agree to temporarily change the system. This means that redistricting would be allowed prior to the typical 10-year mark.
A NO vote means that the redistricting process would stay the same, and maps would not be redrawn until 2031.
Polling data from the end of March shows a large majority of registered voters in Virginia are planning to vote in the April 21 special election and a slim majority (53%) plan to vote YES. [FR]
But let’s call a spade a spade.
This proposed amendment is a reaction to redistricting by Republican-led states. So far Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri have drawn new maps at the request of President Trump. These changes are expected to gerrymander or divide voting districts in strategic ways that gain Republicans seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. In response, California passed Proposition 50 to gerrymander districts in favor of Democrats. [FR]
Virginia’s proposed amendment also seeks to provide a pathway to counter these Republican efforts at a national level, which is why this legislation is framed as “restoring fairness.” Within Virginia at the state level, this redistricting would result in partisan gerrymandering that primarily benefits Democrats.[FR]
Considering whether to support a proposal that will gerrymander Virginia voting districts may elicit an immediate negative response among some Black Virginians. Virginia has a long history of racial gerrymandering.[FR] The term “gerrymandering” itself carries the heavy weight of lived and ancestral memory. However, attempting to scare Black Virginians into voting NO by using violent images of the Jim Crow South undermines informed decision-making.
Instead, we must reckon with the full stakes and make a more informed vote.
This proposed change would not be permanent. The responsibility of drawing voting districts every decade would return to the bipartisan Virginia Redistricting Commission in October 2031.[FR] Granting Virginia legislators the temporary ability to counteract other states’ gerrymandering efforts will increase the chance that Democrats will win control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the November 2026 midterm elections.
However, the impact of this change beyond the 2026 midterm elections is less clear. Virginian Republicans may win back some seats if political sentiment changes or President Trump may frame this amendment as an excuse to have the federal government take control of future elections. [FR, FR] At minimum, the proposed amendment will temporarily undermine the mapmaking role of the bipartisan Virginia Redistricting Commission – a reform 66% of Virginians supported in 2020 – by placing the power of re-drawing maps in the hands of Virginia Democrats.
We can now return to the conservative PAC that sent the mailer urging Black recipients to vote “No” on the proposed amendment.
We would expect an organization – regardless of its political leanings – that actually cares about democracy and justice and about honoring the rights for which our ancestors fought to operate differently.
An organization with these values would acknowledge the harmful racial gerrymandering already adopted in other states. Or, it might also advocate against other voter suppression efforts that are a clearer attack on the rights our ancestors fought for. These efforts include proof of citizenship requirements, felon disenfranchisement or potential voter intimidation by immigration enforcement at the polls.
Despite the mailer’s appeal to the shared historical trauma of Black people in the United States, it is a thinly veiled manipulation tactic. It intends to move us to an uninformed vote, or worse, full disengagement from the voting process. We should not be fooled.
Irrespective of how you choose to vote, we encourage you to critically engage the stakes of redistricting, and its implications for future elections in this country. With democratic norms and processes rapidly shifting and disappearing in the current sociopolitical landscape, the decisions we make at this moment matter for current and future generations of Black Virginians.