‘Excitement in the air’: newly created Alabama district votes for first time

District two, where Black people comprise 48.7% of the population, was carved after a 2023 supreme court ruling

On Tuesday, residents in Alabama’s newly redrawn congressional district two will vote for the first time.

A June 2023 ruling by the supreme court created the new district in the Black belt, which spans from the state’s Choctaw county, on its western border, to Russell county, in the east, where Black people make up 48.7% of the population. The decision also preserved the only other majority Black district in the state – district seven. Voters in district two will have the opportunity to increase their political power, a historic change that has the potential to give voters in the Black belt a representative government.