Black voters across Virginia are raising alarms after opening their mailboxes to a jarring reminder of Jim Crow’s past. The state is gearing up for a vote on a proposed amendment to the Virginia Constitution, but now, civil rights leaders say new political flyers and text messages are causing a lot more harm than good.
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Virginians have already started early voting ahead of an April 21 special election in which they will decide whether to adopt a constitutional amendment on redistricting. As we previously told you, President Donald Trump has called on GOP leaders nationwide to alter their respective states’ voting maps before the 2026 midterm elections. In response, Democrats in Virginia and California have championed their own efforts to ensure the scales aren’t tipped in Republicans’ favor.
But ahead of the special election, Black residents started receiving shocking messages via phone and mail from the Democracy and Justice PAC, a GOP-led political group, Democracy Docket reported. Although it’s not unusual for voters to receive flyers ahead of political elections, Black folks were quickly reminded of Jim Crow.
“Politicians in Richmond are redrawing congressional districts that TAKE AWAY your voice in Washington. VOTE NO on the illegal gerrymandering scheme. VOTE NO on your Absentee Ballot TODAY and return it IMMEDIATELY to stop them,” text messages from a northern Virginian area code read. The message also featured photos from the 1963 March on Washington.
“Our ancestors fought to represent us. Now Richmond politicians are trying to take our districts away,” the message continued. But what’s troubling about the text blasts, according to civil rights leaders, is the tactic’s design to mislead voters and intimidate them rather than inform them.
State Attorney General Jay Jones said Jim Crow should not be used as a political tool. “I take very seriously the history that is being invoked in these mailers,” he said in a statement. “Reports indicate that a group opposing the redistricting referendum has sent materials to Black voters that misuse imagery from the Civil Rights Movement and even invoke Jim Crow while falsely suggesting the measure threatens Black representation.”
The messages laced with imagery from one of the darkest chapters in American history also prompted outrage from the NAACP Virginia State Conference. In a March 9 statement, the organization condemned the flyers as “deceptive tactics aimed at undermining Black voter participation.” They also endorsed the redistricting referendum.
“We denounce the manipulative mailers sent by a MAGA-aligned political action committee aimed at deterring Black voters from supporting this referendum, which falsely compare this important measure to Jim Crow—a brutal system that stripped Black Americans of their voting rights,” the group wrote. “We cannot stand idly by and allow these reprehensible racist tactics to go unchallenged.”
Interestingly enough, the same Republican group that sent the flyers is also coming under fire after another mailer featuring an unauthorized photo of President Barack Obama began circulating too, NDRC said in a press release. In that flyer, the group claims Obama is against the Virginia referendum, even though the former resident has in fact endorsed the the proposed bill in a YouTube video.
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