Former President Barack Obama on Friday praised the new Alabama congressional district map as a “historic win for voting rights and democracy.”

“Alabama has a new, fairer congressional map that gives Black voters an equal opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice,” Obama tweeted Friday.

On Thursday, a three-judge federal court picked the map Alabama will use for its congressional elections next year, one that will add a second district where Black residents make up close to half of the voting age population.

The judges picked Remedial Plan 3, one of the three maps drawn by a special master appointed by the court to fix what the court found was a likely violation of the Voting Rights Act.

The main changes are in the southern half of the state, where District 2 becomes the second district where Black voters will have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. Alabama’s racially polarized voting means that would most likely be a Democrat.

District 1 changes substantially, with two Republican incumbents within its borders, Reps. Jerry Carl of Mobile and Barry Moore of Enterprise.

Instead of six safe Republican districts and one safe Democratic district, Alabama’s map will now have two districts where Democrats have a realistic chance to win.

Last year, the three-judge court found that Alabama’s map, with one majority Black district out of seven in a state where one-fourth of residents are Black, most likely violates the Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that decision in June.

The three-judge court allowed the Legislature time to pass a new map. But the court found that the map approved during a special session in July did not fix the likely Voting Rights Act violation. The court ordered the special master to submit three maps, which were discussed at a hearing on Tuesday.

At that hearing, the plaintiffs who have prevailed in their claim under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act said Remedial Plan 3 would fix the likely violation of the law.

The plaintiffs group led by Evan Milligan of Montgomery said they preferred Remedial Plan 1 but that Plan 3 was a good alternative. The plaintiffs led by Marcus Caster of Washington County said Plans 1 and 3 were both good.

Alabama has had one majority Black district, District 7, and six heavily white districts since 1992, when the map was also drawn by a federal court.

The new map makes no changes to Districts 3, 4, and 5 and minimal changes to Districts 6 and 7.