Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis
Memphis clergy organisation and co-plaintiff challenging Tennessee's redrawn congressional map.
The Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, a coalition of Memphis faith leaders, is a plaintiff in Sherman v. Hargett; a federal panel's 23 July 2026 refusal to block Tennessee's redrawn map sends the coalition's claim toward trial.
Last refreshed: 26 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can a coalition of Memphis clergy still overturn Tennessee's new congressional map before trial?
Timeline for Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis
Co-filed the challenge to Tennessee's redrawn map
US Midterms 2026: Tennessee map survives its first testBackground
The Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis unites Baptist, AME and other Black congregations across the city under one Coalition, organising its member churches around civic participation and voting rights in Memphis and Shelby County.
In May 2026 the Collaborative became a plaintiff in Sherman v. Hargett, joined by individual Memphis voters and two other local organisations. Its interest in the case is congregational rather than abstract: churches that had shared a single representative found themselves distributed among three, and a pulpit is a poor instrument for lobbying three offices at once.
The Collaborative's bid for a preliminary injunction failed on 23 July before a three-judge court, which attributed the boundaries to partisan calculation. Its dilution claim survives to trial. The districts it disputes will nonetheless be the ones voters use on 6 August.