"Alabama is still treating the average black citizens like chattel"

kayman and I don't agree on much, but on this we can agree.

I see Alabama is still treating the average black citizens like chattel (0.00 / 0)
To be shuffled around like between owners every few years.

I'm not surprised at all. The idea of blacks been in the same community as some is bad enough so they move away from us. But GASP, if they reside in the same congressional district as them then it means they will not allow a white person be elected as their congressional representative, so GET THEM AWAY, GET THEM AWAY! It's so pathetic how aversive bias is still at work in this state when it comes to blacks. Some politicos can't even stare an iota of though to attempt to appeal to black citizens because that'll mean they have to deal with them.

As I've said time and time again, some people wonder why educated blacks evacuate Alabama like rats from a sinking ship. It's obvious that nobody respects us here, so we vote with our feet and go to places where we are appreciated.

I've been following the discussion at Left in Alabama concerning the Reapportionment Hearings and Dr. Joe L. Reed's request the committee look at creating a second minority black district in Alabama.

At yesterday's meeting in Montgomery, Dr. Joe Reed asked the Committee to look at creating a second majority black district in Alabama. AL-07, which includes Selma, is 62.8% African-American, is currently the only majority-minority district in the state and the only district held by a Democrat, Rep. Terri Sewell.

IMHO Alabama needs a second minority-majority district because in it's present state white folks end up deciding who should represent black folks.

Winding from the downtown skyline of Birmingham, southward through Selma, and almost to Mobile, is Alabama's 7th Congressional District. This is a district of history, providing Alabama with its first black Congressman since Reconstruction, and again poised to make history this year by electing its first woman to Congress, other than the widow of an incumbent. In terms of this blog, it also occurred to me that if I want to say something about this district, I'd best be typing, as the general election vote in this 63.3% black district promises to be one of the great yawners of November. The action, as it has been from this district's birth in the 1992 cycle, is in the Democratic primary.

This is, of course, an open seat, vacated by Artur Davis in his Quixotic bid to become a triangulating black governor of Alabama. The runoff gives voters a choice between Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Smoot, and Birmingham lawyer Terri Sewell. Sewell led the primary with 36.8% of the vote, with Smoot getting 28.6%. State Representative Earl Hilliard, Jr., of Birmingham, son of the former Congressman from this district, narrowly missed the runoff with 26.8%, and Martha Bozeman, a former Davis staffer, trailed with 7.8%.

Smoot was considered the more progressive/liberal of the two candidates but Sewell had the financial support of white voters from Birmingham which fueled her victory.

This is an election for the people that ACTUALLY live in the district (4.00 / 1)
This is truly an election for the people that actually live in congressional district 7 and for people that can actually VOTE in the district. The problem is that way too many people and organizations are trying to influence it for the wrong reasons (I'm sure that many consider this subjective but it is really not). People that do not live in the district can give high level spin for candidates, write flashy blog posts, post misinformation about candidates, put up radio ads, act as tools of outside interest but in the end it is about the people that vote. It will be about the people who's everyday life is affected by their congressional representation.

Joey Kennedy at the Birmingham News posed the following:

Here are the facts: In Alabama, blacks make up 26.2 percent of the state's population. But only one of the state's congressional districts is majority black, the 7th District. That's just over 14 percent of the state's congressional districts.

One can understand why Joe Reed, the state Democratic Party's vice chairman for minority affairs is urging the Legislature's reapportionment committee to look at the possibility of creating a second majority-black district. Even Reed admits he's not certain another majority-black district could be created, but it is possible, he said, that a district that links Mobile and Montgomery could have a majority of black residents.

The majority of those polled said NO for reasons like this;

Mr. Kennedy, if one of our goals as a people and as a nation is to be color blind and treat all Americans equally regardless of their ethnicity, the simple answer to your question is NO.

If we are all equal it makes no sense to create districts based on race.

You, Joe Reed, and the US Department of Justice should just think about that for a while.

And this;

Congressional districts should be based only on population, NOT race, thats whats called racist.
If white people called for spliting districts to increase congressional representation, old Jessie would be protestin and marchin in the streets.

bluebearcat offers the best counter to their *ahem* rationale at LiA

We live in the real world... (3.00 / 2)
not a theoretical political universe. African-Americans in this state faced numerous documented, codified efforts to actively prevent them from participating in the political process. The VRA and its many provisions were an effort to find pratical ways to correct this historic injustice. We don't live in a fantasy world where ethnic minorities are evenly distributed in every community around the state; we live in a real world where those ethnic minorities are often concentrated in a few areas surrounded by other areas where white voters are concentrated. I don't think it's a cart leading the horse situation, either. I've never known a person - other than perhaps a politician or two - who made a decision on where they would live based on what CD it was in.

So what will the good white folks decide today? Will they pack all the black voters in one district? I say, hell yes they will, because if all the black voters are packed into one district they can win all the others and continue to choose who represents the interest of black voters. Or not.

Remember when Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders (D) said he was supporting Ron Sparks (D) for governor because he didn't want to return to the days of slavery and Jim Crow?

It's not about gerrymandering,

In the process of setting electoral districts, rather than using uniform geographic standards, Gerrymandering is a practice of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander; however, that word can also refer to the process.

It's about the Voting Rights Act

The Act was sent to Congress by President Johnson on March 17, 1965. The bill passed the Senate on May 26, 1965 (after a successful cloture vote on March 23), by a vote of seventy-seven to nineteen. The House was slower to give its approval. After five weeks of debate, it was finally passed on July 9. After differences between the two bills were resolved in conference, the House passed the Conference Report on August 3, the Senate on August 4. On August 6, President Johnson signed the Act into law with Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and other civil rights leaders in attendance.

Chattleland here we come. Look away. Look away.