'No one with power is listening:' Activists warn redistricting moves in the South threaten Black political power

Voting rights activists are sounding alarms about what they say is a broad effort to dilute the voting strength of people of color and sideline the Black elected officials across the South who have made inroads into local government in recent decades.

But under a bill that a Republican legislator has pledged to advance in the Georgia General Assembly early next year, Hendrickson would be stripped of most of her voting powers and the board reconfigured after Democrats of color occupied all five seats this year in a county that had once been a Republican stronghold.

"The optics are just very obvious," Hendrickson told CNN. "It's a perception that there's a loss of control for Republicans, and we have people of color who are assuming leadership roles and now you are trying to take that power away."