JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
And I'm Juana Sommers in Montgomery, Alabama, where this memory looms over the upcoming midterms.
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JOHN CLOUD: You are ordered to disperse. Go home or go to your church. This march will not continue.
SUMMERS: Bloody Sunday in 1965, when officers violently chased, beat and gassed hundreds of peaceful protesters marching for the right to vote, including children.
SHEYANN WEBB-CHRISTBURG: I was the youngest 8-year-old on the Bloody Sunday March in Selma, Alabama.
SUMMERS: That's Sheyann Webb-Christburg, who's still a voting rights activist.
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: My most memorable moments during that struggle was first having to meet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who really gave me the drive to become that disobedient child.
SUMMERS: Earlier this year, she rallied here in Montgomery at the State House when Republicans wanted to revert to a congressional map that favored their party, a change made possible after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act that Sheyann and so many others had fought for in the '60s.
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WEBB-CHRISTBURG: We got to what?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Vote (ph).
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: We got to what?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Vote.
SUMMERS: And she's connected with multiple generations of voters.
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: With Tyler, this young man captured my attention some years ago. Evan, I knew his parents. I kept my eyes on him, even up until this day.
SUMMERS: She means 45-year-old attorney Evan Milligan and 19-year-old college student Tyler Jerome Adams. It's the first election year that Tyler has been old enough to vote.
TYLER JEROME ADAMS: The South has been extremely racist for as long as people can remember. So knowing that I am being able to do something that so many people fought for, it was just thrilling for me.
SUMMERS: And Evan Milligan was a lead plaintiff in the 2023 Supreme Court case, Allen v. Milligan, that forced Alabama to add a second majority-Black district. But now the state has reverted to a map that Republicans say doesn't consider race but instead reflects Alabama's partisan Republican majority, undoing the change Evan and others pushed for, too.
EVAN MILLIGAN: What keeps me going despite heartbreak and disappointment or losing friends because of quality life issues is just, my connection to the struggle sometimes is all I feel like I really have.
SUMMERS: At the Civil Rights Memorial Center, under a massive photo of the march Dr. King led from Selma to Montgomery, I sat with these three generations of voting rights activists. I started with two crucial questions. How worried are they about losing representation in Washington, D.C.? And can their current member of Congress, Democrat Shomari Figures, win re-election now?
MILLIGAN: I worry about it. I worry that he might lose his seat, for sure.
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: Well, we already know that they're out to get us. And certainly, even with the redistricting of his district - and that's even more reason why, you know, all of us have to play a significant role in trying to push this vote every day.
SUMMERS: When you say they are out to get us, who is they?
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: They are our leaders, starting from the top. I mean...
SUMMERS: And when you say the top, you mean the president of the United States?
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: The president of the United States of America and many Republicans who are following his leadership.
SUMMERS: We came here to Montgomery, Alabama, and specifically wanted to come to the 2nd Congressional District because it's been at the center of a national story over parties drawing and redrawing voting maps. And as it stands right now, the Supreme Court has upheld Republican-drawn maps in your state, which had previously been ruled that they were intentionally discriminatory. How are you guys feeling? What are you hearing from people in your lives about all of this?
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: Well, much of it, I'm saddened by, you know, being a little girl back in the '60s when we were fighting for our right to vote. And here we are again in 2026 dealing with all of those corruptive racist elements that are trying to rob particularly African Americans and poor people of their right to vote. And it saddens me because from time to time, we have seen no integrity in this election process.
ADAMS: For me, with the people in my life, we also feel like there's no one out there to advocate for us in a way where this map was intentionally racist. So now we know that the state legislature is not going to protect us. And then the Supreme Court backs up the state legislature, reinforcing that we don't have any protections, essentially. So it's no other choice but to go vote. So yeah, that is what I'm hearing from a lot of my peers, a lot of young leaders all across the South.
MILLIGAN: This is Evan. I think the way I would be able to assess that would be looking at voter turnout. And we had a primary, and our voter turnout here in Montgomery County was up, I believe, to 30% compared to 24% or 25% two years ago. It's not where we need in order to have a popular movement that can really outcompete those who are interested in rolling back the gains of the civil rights movement, and how we get there is sort of the thing that all of us are constantly banging our heads on the wall and just trying any and everything to figure out.
SUMMERS: As we have this conversation, we're just about a month out from Election Day. What are some of the big issues for each of you this year?
ADAMS: Gas prices (laughter). You might as well - I mean, when I first started driving a full tank in my car was $20. So now it's $50. And now that I'm in college, $50 to fill up my car. So yeah, gas prices for me.
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: I would say cost, corruption, healthcare. I think those are primarily some very important issues.
MILLIGAN: This is Evan. For me, the main issue right now is survival and particularly survival of Black people in the southeast region of this country. I'm concerned about the breakdown of the rule of law, preventing state governments and far-right groups from violently attacking our communities even more blatantly than has happened throughout the history of this country. And I would like to see people occupying interstates, harbors, ports, railways until there's a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right of all American citizens of voting age to vote and have their vote counted.
SUMMERS: Do you worry about this being a fair and free election?
ADAMS: Of course. Of course I worry. With the current state that our president is in right now, of course I worry about this being a fair and free election. He will do anything, as he has done, say anything, as he has proved to us, to get his point across that Republicans need to keep Congress. I mean, he incited a whole riot. So I'm - I worry about it all the time.
SUMMERS: We've talked about the fact that many of you feel like, as it stands right now, the voting process doesn't have a lot of integrity. If Congressman Figures keeps a seat, if he wins re-election, will that feel like a victory? What will that tell you? What will that show you?
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: I think in a real sense, that's a victory won if he wins, and we're hoping for that. And I think that would be another step towards giving others hope in this process. I wouldn't doubt Shomari Figures' integrity after he would have won this race.
SUMMERS: We specifically wanted to bring the three of you together because you represent three different generations of voters. For each of you, what is something that you admire about how another generation pursues politics?
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: I can tell you this. And I just finished telling you this, Tyler, earlier. This young man represents the activism, the intellect and progressiveness of many young people across this country. And we got to keep them involved in the process.
ADAMS: I love - thank you so much. This is Tyler. I love the tenacity that Miss Christburg's generation had. You know, in my generation, a lot of what you see is social media activism, but I love the - get in the field, getting the boots on the ground approach. That is one thing - listen. If I was there, I definitely would have been out there. That is one thing that I admire so much about Miss Christburg's generation.
SUMMERS: Evan, what's something you admire about how another generation pursues politics?
MILLIGAN: I guess I could - I just - I love Black people being alive in any form or fashion, especially politically. So I think, you know, the beauty of Tyler's generation is, as much as we, I guess, maybe look down on them for how much they're online, their communication skills are very advanced because of that. And there are things that, like, they know about themselves and they know how to talk about that I didn't really have language for until I was in my 30s.
SUMMERS: And Sheyann, you're our voter at the table with the most experience. What is something that you hope people like Tyler, other young people like him, remember and hold onto in this moment?
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: I would hope that young people, first and foremost, will never give up. It must be a continuation of great training for our young people politically, economically, socially, all of the above, in a very nonviolent way that Dr. King used. There's no young people that's not too young to get involved in some form or fashion. And I just want to say to both of these young men, I love what you all are doing, what you have done, and I'm just so proud of you. Keep pushing.
SUMMERS: Sheyann, Evan, Tyler, thank you all so much for being here.
WEBB-CHRISTBURG: Thank you. Thank you so very much.
ADAMS: Thank you so much.
MILLIGAN: Thank you.
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SUMMERS: That was Tyler Jerome Adams, Evan Milligan, and Sheyann Webb-Christburg. We spoke about the impact of redistricting in Montgomery, Alabama. Our midterms coverage will continue across NPR through election night and after results in. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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