A group of protesters hold a sign that reads “Black Voters Matter” with a quote from the 2023 Allen v. Milligan case, which required Alabama to draw its 2nd Congressional District to give Black voters the opportunity to choose their preferred leaders, on May 4, 2026, at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photo by Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Congressional Black Caucus on Tuesday called on U.S. corporations to condemn efforts to weaken the Black vote by eliminating majority-Southern congressional districts.
CBC’s attempt to mobilize the business community comes at a time when Black representation in Congress potentially faces its most grave threat since the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War. But some business leaders have taken a friendlier tone toward President Donald Trump, who supports gerrymandering.
The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States from April regarding the so-called Louisiana v. Callaissharply weakened the federal Voting Rights Act, which prevented states from apportioning majority and minority districts. This narrow the employ of race in redistricting, which prompted several southern states to improve modern maps they target neighborhoods that are majority Black Democrats.
“These actions are not routine political exercises,” the letter reads. “These are coordinated efforts to silence Black voices at the ballot box and deprive communities of representation in American democracy.”
The message is addressed to over 200 corporations and business groups that have signed up for the campaign 2021 letter supporting voting rights, as well as an anonymous number of other corporate leaders. Signatories included Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Nike, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Target, Tesla and Unilever USA.
This letter called on Congress to update the Voting Rights Act, including changes that would restore the federal government’s ability to review changes to election and voting laws in states and local governments where discrimination has occurred, a practice called preclearance that the Supreme Court effectively halted in 2013.
On Tuesday, the CBC said the companies should issue individual or joint public statements opposing efforts to weaken Black voting power and dismantle protections under the Voting Rights Act.
Lawmakers also want companies to report on corporate political spending and ties to attacks on voting rights and “discriminatory redistricting programs.” Businesses should accept the invitation to participate in a national gathering with leaders and civil rights advocates to discuss Black voting rights and political power, the lawmakers wrote.
The letter called on companies to submit responses by June 9.
“Five years ago, corporations across America publicly affirmed that democracy, racial equality and the right to vote matter. Today, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Callais decision, these commitments are being tested in real time,” Rep. Yvette Clarke, the New York Democrat who chairs the CBC, said in a statement.
“Corporations that profit from Black consumers, rely on Black workers, and benefit from Black communities cannot remain silent while Black political representation is dismantled in plain sight,” Clarke said. “Silence in this moment is not neutrality – it is complicity.”
Corporate leaders remember Trump fondly
But as of 2021, political attitudes in some parts of corporate America, particularly among tech companies, have changed.
When the companies signed the July 2021 letter, they were acting in the wake of the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer and the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021. Six years later, some titans of American business have taken a more conciliatory approach to Trump and the Make America Great Again movement.
Elon Musk, who heads Tesla, spearheaded the 2025 Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative that led to layoffs and layoffs of thousands of federal workers. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke positively about the president. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos called Trump “more mature” in his second term.
Trump has also led the charge against diversity, equality and inclusion. In March, the president signed it executive order targeting DEI practices by federal contractors. One directive followed another anti-DEI order in January 2025, which encouraged the private sector to “end illegal discrimination and DEI preferences.”
Since the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling, some Republicans have portrayed the elimination of majority and minority districts as a constitutional imperative. Current districts should be thrown away because they were drawn with their race in mind, they say.
“I don’t think race should be used to help a person because of his race, and I don’t think race should be used to hurt a person because of his race,” Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said last week during a Senate hearing on racial gerrymandering.
Quick remaps
Since the Callais decision was issued on April 29, Florida and Tennessee have changed their maps, and Louisiana is expected to change soon. South Carolina legislators he tried but failed to develop a modern map, and Alabama took steps to implement the 2023 gerrymander after the Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that blocked it.
On Tuesday, a panel of three federal judges issued a modern order stopping the map of Alabamawhich will likely overtake one of the two Democratic members of Congress if passed. The judges found that the map was racially discriminatory, even under Callais.
Alabama filed an appeal decision to the Supreme Court.
“I applaud the three-judge panel for upholding the rule of law and affirming that racial discrimination has no place in our redistricting process,” Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat who also signed Tuesday’s CBC letter, said in a statement.
“While we know this legal battle is far from over, today’s ruling sends a clear message: Black voters in Alabama cannot and will not be silenced.”
