The Supreme Court case Louisiana v. Callais gutted the Voting Rights Act and rewrote the rules of American democracy. Draw the Line spends ten episodes telling the inside story of Louisiana’s fight over power, maps, and who gets left off them. As goes Louisiana, so goes the rest of the country. Who's fighting for your vote?
In the spring of 2026, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutted the Voting Rights Act, and majority-Black districts across the South started to disappear. To understand how we got here, we must go back to the moment Black Louisianans first won the vote. In episode two of Draw the Line, host Ellen McGirt travels to Donaldsonville, LA, where a formerly enslaved man became America’s first Black mayor in 1868. She talks with civil rights attorney Jared Evans, legal scholars Leah ...
8 Oct 2026
BONUS Live From Essence Fest: The Work Gets Personal
If you spend enough time on voting rights work, you become more fluent than you ever thought you'd be in legal history, court cases, maps, and the enormously creative, and pretty ugly, ways some people have used to keep others from casting their ballot. In front of a live audience at Essence Fest 2026, Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund — and the person who argued the Callais case — talks with Power Coalition CEO Ashley Shelton about how she prepared ...
8 Oct 2026
BONUS Live From Essence Fest: The Accounting
Instead of hanging at a cookout, a determined group of Black women convened during Essence Fest on July 4 to do something even more American: demand more from their democracy. In this special reporter’s notebook episode, we are presenting an all-star panel as they “spill the tea” about the redistricting fight, the Callais decision, and what it means for Louisiana — and the rest of us. Stay tuned to the end for a special message on what to do if you have any questions about voting. Panelists E...
3 Jul 2026
Episode 1: The Lines We Draw
On a clear March morning, hundreds of Louisianans rally at the State Capitol to defend the right to vote. Weeks later, the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais guts the Voting Rights Act — declaring the court's own remedy for racial discrimination unconstitutional. In the premiere episode of Draw the Line, host Ellen McGirt travels to Baton Rouge to meet the organizers, legal experts, and everyday citizens on the front lines of the fight against gerrymandering and traces how a dispu...
16 Jun 2026
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Every line on a map is a design decision. And every decision is about who gets power. Coming soon. Subscribe now. Head to DesignObserver.com for more.
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