High Court’s ‘Colorblind’ Mandate on Redistricting Angers Minorities

On Beatties Ford Road, not far from the glimmering skyscrapers that loom over this Southern boom town, rests McDonald’s Cafeteria. There, black movers and shakers gather to chew on spicy stewed turkey, tangy side dishes and the news of the day.

But, of late, pickled peppers aren’t the only things causing heartburn--especially when the discussion turns to the impending congressional redistricting in North Carolina.

“It’s like those folks in Washington are telling all us black folks down here to go to hell. Why do they need to take away our congressman?” asked patron Roland White, a military contractor. “If we need some help on the federal level, who are we supposed to turn to--Jesse Helms?”

Forget scholarly debates of constitutional interpretations and theories about majority block voting on Beatties Ford Road. Here, the issue is a lot less abstract and quite a bit more personal.

It looks to blacks as if they are losing, as a result of court decisions, something valuable and recently won--representation in the nation’s capital by people who know what it is to grow up black in the South.

North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District is among eight mostly minority districts in Florida, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas that have been disbanded by the Supreme Court or federal district courts since 1993.

Seven of the eight seats are held by blacks. The eighth--Texas’ 29th, which is 60% Hispanic--is held by Rep. Gene Green, who is white.

At least four other districts, all held by minorities, are threatened by federal judges who have ruled that race played too strong a factor in drawing up the district boundaries.

The anger is widespread. Black constituents in these districts say that although it isn’t mandatory that their representative look like them, they take pride and some sense of security in that fact.

Cab driver Lawrence Underwood, 56, views the Supreme Court decision to invalidate the 12th District as paternalistic.

“It’s like we don’t have enough sense to pick the people we want for office,” Underwood said.

For some of the districts, it hasn’t been determined whether the new maps will affect November elections or if they somehow will retain their mostly minority flavor. It’s precisely the uncertainty that concerns some.

“It’s like the courts think we are chips or dominoes or something. I don’t like them playing around with my vote,” said Charles Grier, manager of Tim’s Barber Shop in Charlotte.

Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.) said the South’s long history of race enmity compels the creation of districts where minorities are a majority if they are to win office.

“We in the Southern states have a pretty substantial pattern of racially polarized voting,” Watt said.

What’s at stake depends on who you ask.

Jesse Jackson invoked the imagery of white-robed marauding klansmen, comparing them to Supreme Court justices who “strike in black robes burning opportunities” for minorities.

Others said the results won’t be that noticeable.

“Will Congress be an all-white body? No,” said David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which focuses on political issues with an impact on the minority community. “Yes, there will be a decline in black members, but it will be a comparatively small decline.”

Try telling that to Louisiana Democrat Cleo Fields of Baton Rouge, who through redistricting finds himself a congressman without a district.

The redistricting issue has revealed an angry streak in the two-term lawmaker, who won more than 70% of the vote in his 1994 reelection.

Usually soft-spoken, Fields punctuates sentences with the phrase, “How in the hell . . . ?” when discussing the death of his congressional district.

“People from Louisiana have been calling me, asking what’s going on, and I can’t explain it to them,” said Fields, his voice rising.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act says an election district might be illegal if it denies minorities the chance to elect candidates of their choosing--even if the discrimination was unintended.

Establishing mostly minority districts had been used to create areas where minorities had a better chance to win office. But, starting with a 1993 North Carolina decision, the Supreme Court ruled the oddly shaped districts, drawn to maximize minority voting clout, may violate white voters’ rights.

Doris Hubbard, a Houston community activist, doesn’t see it that way. Living in Texas’ 18th District once served by Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland, Hubbard said: “It’s like they don’t want us black people to have anything.”

No black was elected to Congress from a Southern state between 1901 and 1972, when Jordan won in Texas. In 1994, federal judges ruled the 18th had to be redrawn because it had “the odious imprint of racial apartheid.”

“We didn’t create this system--white people in Washington did. But it’s always minorities that end up getting hurt,’ Hubbard said. “I know the Supreme Court is the highest court in the country, but I still believe we the people still run this country.”

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said she believes that redrawing the district will have a chilling effect on her constituents, who have no great love of Washington politics.

For now, Jackson Lee and Watt may be the lucky ones.

Although courts have ruled that the districts must be redrawn, their reelection bids in November will probably be fought on the more friendly district lines that exist now.

Watt’s district is about 57% black; Jackson Lee’s is 51% black and 15% Hispanic.

Fields is not so lucky.

His district, Louisiana’s fourth, was 51% black and 49% white. It has been disbanded, its black voters scattered into four surrounding districts.

Acknowledging an uphill battle in any of the new districts, Fields had considered running statewide for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat J. Bennett Johnston. But Fields announced that he would not seek the Senate seat, nor reelection to the House.

Some might argue that race won’t matter to voters if black incumbents are doing a job worthy of reelection.

But Watt said that the history of racial division in the South prevents colorblind voting.

Using North Carolina as an example, Watt said, private polls have shown that between 25% and 30% of white voters would not cross racial lines.

To overcome that handicap, Watt said, he would need nearly every black vote and about 55% of the whites just to eke out a victory.