Race-Conscious Congressional District Denied

The district that elected Virginia’s first black member of Congress since Reconstruction is unconstitutional because it was drawn too heavily along racial lines, a panel of federal judges ruled Friday.

Unless the ruling is overturned on appeal, Democratic Rep. Robert C. Scott will have to run in a redrawn district in 1998.

The panel of three judges said Virginia, in drawing the majority-black district in 1991, “subordinated traditional districting principles, such as compactness, communities of interest and respect for cities and counties to accomplish its goal of a safe black district.”

Scott said he was disappointed but hopes the courts will be satisfied with only minor changes to his district and others.

Scott was elected from the 3rd District with 79% of the vote in 1992. He remains the only black person among Virginia’s 11 House members.

The 3rd District meanders 225 miles in southeastern and central Virginia, stretching into parts of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Richmond and Petersburg. With a voting-age population that is 62% black, it has been described as looking like a grasping claw or a squashed salamander.

“The judges are forgetting the shameful history of racial discrimination in the state and saying there is no need for a remedy,” said Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia American Civil Liberties Union, which was involved in the redistricting.

Atty. Gen. James S. Gilmore III said he would consult with the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People before deciding whether to appeal.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act opened the way for drawing oddly shaped districts to give minorities a better chance to win office. But the U.S. Supreme Court found in June that some of the race-conscious redistricting went too far.

The high court threw out predominantly minority congressional districts in Texas and North Carolina, saying the states unlawfully made race the main factor in drawing the boundaries. Other federal courts have disbanded mostly minority districts in Florida, Louisiana and Georgia.

The lawsuit challenging the Virginia district was filed by two Republican activists, Navy retiree Donald Moon and Robert Smith. They were aided by the Campaign for a Color Blind America, a Houston-based organization that has raised money for similar suits in at least six states.