Alabama’s Black voters seek chance to be heard after years of being silenced

Montgomery, the state's capital, is included in a new congressional district, and on Tuesday, a runoff will decide who stands in November

Montgomery, Alabama is the birthplace of the Confederacy and of the civil rights movement. Its history speaks volumes about the state of American democracy. It is perhaps ironic, then, how the last generation of its voters have largely been silenced.

For decades, Alabama's capital city has been split between two or three different congressional districts - a deliberate effort by state leaders to prevent power from accreting to Black voters. Recently the region has been represented by a white Freedom Caucus Republican. But last year a bruising court battle forced Alabama to redraw its district lines, finally placing the entire city and a wide swath of Alabama's Black Belt of African American residents in the same congressional district.