In the American South, a new Jim Crow era is dawning. Ali Velshi calls these gerrymandered redistricting efforts a “shameless power grab by a wannabe dictator facing the electoral consequences of his deeply unpopular regime,” but the effectiveness of this effort must motivate Americans to act.

“This is the most urgent problem facing every one of us today, no matter where in the country we live,” Velshi says. The cynical Trump scheme to prevent losing seats in the midterm elections has become a real-time deconstruction of our multi-racial democracy, gerrymandering congressional districts to allow Republicans to pick up extra seats without the necessary extra votes.

In California and Virginia, Democrats organized referendums for the people to decide what their electoral map should look like. The Supreme Court of Virginia  struck down the congressional redistricting approved by voters in April. At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the last remaining vestiges of the Voting Rights Act, allowing Southern States to embark on redistricting to eliminate Black representation.

Tennessee’s new congressional map eliminates the only Black-majority district in the state. Louisiana, which is one-third Black, is redistricting to reduce Black representation to one-sixth. Over a quarter of Alabama’s population is Black, but a new map being fast-tracked by Republicans would eliminate two predominately Black districts, leaving them with no representatives in Congress. Mississippi, South Carolina, and Florida Republicans are also working on eliminating districts that are primarily Democratic and predominantly Black.

Donald Trump’s request that Republican states redistrict to hand his party a midterm advantage has spiraled into an effort at stamping out Black representation in Congress. Americans need to respond with a new reconstruction.

LISTEN: REDISTRICTING FOR JIM CROW

WATCH: SOUTHERN STATES ‘DECONSTRUCTING’ BLACK REPRESENTATION

MORE FROM MSNOW’S ALI VELSHI