The Congressional Black Caucus recently sounded the alarm, calling the Republican-led gerrymandering efforts across the country an assault on Black voter protections.

According to the CBC, 19 of its 62 members may lose their seats after the redistricting and the Supreme Court’s gutting of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The high court sanctioned Congressional maps providing a “partisan” advantage, but not a racial one. Critics say the developments open the door for dramatically decreased Black representation in Congress.

Representative Yvette Clark, who chairs the CBC, described the national redistricting strategy as a “power grab.” 

CBC members and political scientists describe the mid-decade redistricting plans, which were initiated by President Donald Trump, as an attack on Black voters.

In Tennessee, the state legislature successfully split the district that includes Memphis, a predominantly Black urban area, into three districts.

“Overall, the Congressional district plan is Black vote dilution at an industrial scale,” stated Dr. Sekou Franklin, the executive director of the John Lewis Center for Social Justice at Fisk University. “It eliminates the largest urban and naturally-cohesive Congressional district, of which Black voters can elect a candidate of their choice. This has not happened since before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.”

Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, who has represented the 5th Congressional District which includes Kansas City for more than two decades, faces an uncertain future. The Missouri legislature targeted Cleaver by dividing the district, a Democratic stronghold, into three districts. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected challenges to the map, declaring it constitutional.

Vice President J.D. Vance campaigned today in the now Republican-friendly district, remarking on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling. 

“We had that great Supreme Court case that said a crazy thing, like maybe we shouldn’t discriminate against people based on race, right, very common sense,” said Vance.

The CBC has pushed back against the gerrymandering trend and announced plans to continue challenging the Republican efforts.

In a statement, members added: “We are working with partners in state legislatures across the South, alongside the legal and civil rights communities, to challenge these maps in court and mobilize our communities to the ballot box.”

In a recent social media rant, President Donald Trump hurled his favorite insult at House Democratic leader, New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, calling Jeffries “low IQ” and a “thug.” Trump’s denigration came as he called for Jeffries to be charged for allegedly inciting the violence at the Washington Correspondents Dinner two weeks ago when a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump. 

In conversations held publicly around news desks and in homes, barbershops, and backyard BBQs, one of the questions that invariably surfaces focuses on whether Donald Trump is a racist. Most Black Americans have a ready answer. Mother Jones raised the question earlier this week in an article, and their analysis of his use of the insulting description, “low IQ,” offers credible evidence. 

In the last 10 years, Trump used “low IQ” 75 times, and more than half of those times, he applied it to prominent Black Americans. Here’s a look at the numbers. 

• Vice President Kamala Harris: Targeted 23 times; Trump has called the Vice-President “very low IQ individual”.
• Congresswoman Maxine Waters: Targeted at least 8 times; described as an “extraordinarily low IQ person”.
• Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson: Attacked as “that new, Low IQ person” on the Supreme Court.
• Minority Whip Hakeem Jeffries: Called a “totally low IQ person” and a “thug”.
• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson: Targeted 5 times.
• Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett: Referred to as a “low-IQ person” during a Meet the Press appearance.
• Radio Host Charlamagne tha God: Labeled a “low IQ individual” in response to his public comments.
• Other Targets: He has also questioned the intelligence of figures like Basketball Superstar LeBron James, Newscaster Don Lemon, and former Trump Supporter Omarosa Manigault Newman.

Jeffries responded with a post of his own, referring to Trump as the “dumbest” president in history.

The U.S. Black Chambers of Commerce recently unveiled its new campus, which was the former BET headquarters, located on more than seven acres in the nation’s capital.

USBC President Ron Busby, said, “When I reflect on the journey of the U.S. Black Chambers over the past 16 years, I see a story of resilience, vision, and progress. This campus is the next chapter of that story — not just a building, but a living symbol of what happens when we claim our space, own our future, and build institutions that outlast us.”

For five years, Busby worked to bring his vision of a permanent home for the “voice of Black Business” to fruition. Relying on his faith and an impressive roster of supporters, he navigated a changing political landscape and uncertainty for businesses, large and small.

“The USBC Innovation Campus is about more than today’s entrepreneurs; it’s about ensuring that generations to come inherit a place where their ideas, voices, and businesses can thrive,” he explained.

Amid the upheaval of today’s economy with its growing list of mass layoffs, increased tariffs and tightened access to capital, Black entrepreneurs are finding renewed hope in efforts to build a community that helps fuel their goals.

History is on their side.

Even during slavery, some free Blacks managed to establish small businesses, and for a very small number of the enslaved, there were limited opportunities to “hire themselves out” for income. After the Civil War and during Reconstruction, there was a sharp rise in Black business ownership as men and women embraced ways to exercise their freedom. Despite the frequent threats and incidents of violence, this commitment to claim their place in spaces that had been off-limits served only to fortify their determination.

The harsh reality of Jim Crow and its relentless discrimination created a demand for more Black businesses. Entrepreneurs provided services to their communities, even though many consumers had very little discretionary income. The “internal” economies that sprang up around the country employed other African Americans and led to Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and insurance companies like North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Madame C.J. Walker also emerged during this era.

“My object in life is not simply to make money for myself or to spend it on myself in dressing or running around in an automobile, but I love to use a part of what I make in trying to help others” she said.

Fast forward more than a century, and the development of a campus devoted exclusively to nurture Black entrepreneurship would have been among Walker’s and the ancestors’  wildest dreams. It certainly has been one of Ron Busby’s, and he would like to see the USBC Innovation Campus play a pivotal role in helping others realize theirs.