Voting Rights Act: Fault Lines of the American Experiment and the Politics of Redemption

By most accounts, the 1965 Voting Rights Act has been obliterated by the recent US Supreme Court decision (Louisiana v. Callais).  In a political sleight of hand, the decision has been defended as a “race-neutral” guardrail for electoral democracy.  The move is a bait and switch—what was once considered landmark legislation in response to racial discrimination is now judged racially discriminatory.  Voting rights activist, Stacy Abrams calls it a “hat tip to hatred.”

Because of Christianity’s history of muffled opposition to black disenfranchisement and downright collusion with the political order, the church’s response must be incisive.  How might the church help interpret the race logic of black erasure unambiguously?

This two-week summer series calls upon womanist theologian, M. Shawn Copeland’s newest work, Politics of Redemption (Marquette University Press, 2025) to think through the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act in theological terms.  Where freedom is precarious, Copeland suggests love as political practice and redemption on the “black frequency.”

Led by Riverside’s Theologian-in-Residence, Rev. Dr. Andrea C. White, Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Join Zoom