CDF Board Chair Rev. Dr. Don Darius Butler will help bus attendees from Huntsville to Selma and Montgomery for Saturday’s National Day of Action to fight for a democracy that reflects the faces of all America’s children.
Media Contact: Kwentoria Williams, KWilliams@childrensdefense.org, CDF Communications Director
(May 14, 2026) MONTGOMERY, AL—This Saturday, Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Board of Directors Chair Rev. Dr. Don Darius Butler will march alongside civil rights activists, faith leaders, and thousands of concerned Americans, in Alabama, to support the National Day of Action for Voting Rights.
In late April, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision weakened a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act. Legal experts and civil rights leaders have credited that landmark law with dismantling the systemic barriers that once prevented thousands of Black Americans from voting. CDF fears the Callais decision will jeopardize the civic future and well-being of 37 million Black and brown children in America.
In response, civil rights and faith leaders have organized “All Roads Lead to the South”, on the National Day of Action for Voting Rights, to highlight how the Callais decision could disenfranchise Black and brown voters throughout the South. All Roads will feature numerous demonstrations across the state of Alabama. Buses have been chartered to bring attendees to Alabama from as far away as Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Jackson, Memphis, Mobile, and Nashville.
Dr. Butler, who also pastors The Concord Fellowship of Huntsville, will bus attendees from Huntsville to Selma early Saturday morning to participate in a vigil at the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge. After that, the group will march to Montgomery to join a rally for voting rights at the Alabama state capitol building.
“There are moments history will not excuse,” Dr. Butler said. “All Roads Lead to the South names this hour as one that demands moral courage, unflinching presence, and direct action. Silence will only sustain harm and delay will only deny our collective responsibility. The time to act is not coming. It is here.”
Leaders in several Southern states have already proposed redrawing their local congressional maps, following the Supreme Court’s Callais decision.
Alabama lawmakers are considering plans to eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black congressional districts. Last week, Tennessee chose to split up a majority-Black congressional district in Memphis. Meanwhile, the Mississippi House of Representatives will debate redrawing the state’s Supreme Court districts in Mississippi’s Old Capitol building. That is the same building where state lawmakers first enacted the segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era more than 150 years ago.
| Event 1 Selma, Alabama Tabernacle Baptist Church 1431 Broad Street 8:30a – 11:30a Saturday, May 16 | Event 2 Montgomery, Alabama Alabama State Capitol 600 Dexter Street 12:30p – 4:00p Saturday, May 16 |