House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) declared that the injustices of the pre-Civil War South were still haunting America while promising Democrats will do whatever they can to take back the House during a Wednesday press conference on Capitol Hill.Jeffries denounced the wave of Republican-led gerrymandering efforts taking shape ahead of November’s elections, calling the redistricting schemes an “unprecedented assault on Black political representation, the likes of which we have not seen since the Jim Crow era.”“The ghost of the Confederacy has afflicted the Supreme Court majority and is invading and haunting the nation right now,” he continued, alluding to a late April decision which gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act designed to prevent minority-dominated districts from being split up or diluted.Warning that these efforts to disenfranchise voters of color were only the beginning, Jeffries said his party was “launching a decisive and overwhelming response” to ensure fair elections in the upcoming midterms and the 2028 presidential race.Jeffries: "We're gonna win back control of the House ... the ghost of the Confederacy has afflicted the Supreme Court majority, and is invading and haunting the nation right now, and we take that seriously. Which is why Democrats are committed to launching a decisive and… pic.twitter.com/w2VTiq8NSt— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 13, 2026He accused Republicans of choosing “a strategy of needing to cheat to win” and vowed that Democrats would “crush their souls as it relates to the extremism they are trying to unleash on the American people.”A slew of Southern states rushed to establish new GOP-friendly congressional maps after the Supreme Court ruled a Louisiana map apportioned to reflect census-backed racial demographics was unconstitutional.Last Thursday, Tennessee’s Republican-led legislature convened a special session to approve plans carving up the state’s only Democratic-held district, which represented the majority-Black city of Memphis.The Supreme Court eased the way for Alabama lawmakers to adopt a map that would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black districts on Monday, when it sent legal challenges to the proposal back to a lower court.Similar plans in motion in Louisiana, North Carolina and Florida could erase another nine Democratic-held seats in the House, adding to the five new Republican seats conjured in a revised congressional map of Texas.The NewsCan't Wait.Neither Can We.Your SupportFuelsOur MissionYour SupportFuelsOur MissionSupport HuffPostMisinformation spreads fast. Fact-based reporting is how we fight back. Your membership funds the reporters holding power accountable every single day. Join HuffPost and be part of our mission.We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.“Our fierce, independent reporting and unvarnished perspective hold power to account and inform millions of readers. Please support this hard-hitting journalism.”Whitney SnyderEditor-in-Chief HuffPostSupport $5/monthSilverMonthly recurring supporter-only emailFewer requests for financial supportSupport $10/monthGoldEverything in the Silver TierAd-free access on the HuffPost website OR HuffPost appsSay goodbye to annoying video interruptions while you read. No more autoplay videos.Support $20/monthPlatinumEverything in the Gold TierAd-free access on the HuffPost website AND HuffPost appsEarly access to new featuresMembership to Platinum Club focus groupMake a One Time ContributionJoin HuffPostAlready a member? Log in to hide these messages.Close