Federal trial over Alabama's congressional map begins in Birmingham
The front of the federal Hugo L Black Courthouse taken on August 15, 2023. A trial over Alabama's redistricting maps began on Monday. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector)
BIRMINGHAM — A federal trial over Alabama's congressional map opened Monday with questions over whether Black voters in Mobile share stronger political and economic ties with other Black residents in the state's Black Belt or with nearby Baldwin County, a predominantly white area.
The answers to the questions could determine the fate of Alabama's 2nd Congressional District, currently configured with a near-majority Black population to give Black Alabamians living there a better opportunity to select their preferred leaders.
Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Milligan v Allen case and an Army major and Mobile native, testified that Black residents in Mobile and the Black Belt share economic, social and historical bonds that justify being grouped in the same congressional district.
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Dowdy, during cross examination, said she would 'not necessarily agree' there's a connection between Mobile and Baldwin County 'besides the two counties being located next to one another.'
A federal court in October 2023 approved a new congressional map drawn by a court-appointed special master that created a majority-Black district and a near-majority Black district. The approval came after an almost two-year court battle in a case that has gone to the nation's highest court twice.
The courts ruled that racially polarized voting patterns in Alabama — where white Alabamians tend to vote for Republicans and Black Alabamians tend to vote for Democrats — meant that a 2021 congressional map approved by the Legislature prevented Black Alabamians, who make up about 27% of the population in the state, from meaningfully participating in the election process.
The court ordered the creation of a second majority-Black district 'or something quite close to it,' and rejected a map from the Alabama Legislature, which they said failed to address Voting Rights Act violations.
The plan, drawn by Special Master Richard Allen, created a 2nd Congressional District running from Mobile County through the southern Black Belt and to the Georgia border, with a Black Voting Age Population (BVAP) of 48.7%. It also created a 7th Congressional District in the western Black Belt and Jefferson County with a BVAP of 51.9%.
Elections have taken place in each of the newly-drawn districts while the lawsuit proceeded. U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, won the 2nd Congressional District seat last November. U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, won her eighth term in Congress in the newly-drawn 7th district boundaries.
Robert Clopton, a Mobile resident and president of the NAACP Mobile chapter, also testified about Black communities in Mobile and the Black Belt sharing deeper cultural, economic, and historical bonds, focusing on how remnants of segregation are still alive in both Mobile and the Black Belt.
'Sunday is a very, very, very segregated day in the city of Mobile,' he said, later adding that he's also been to numerous churches in the Black Belt and did not remember 'one white person in the congregation.'
William Cooper, a districting expert consulting plaintiffs, said that Alabama's Black population is 'sufficiently large and geographically compact' to support a second majority-Black district and provided several illustrative maps that include maps both more compact than both the former 2023 map and the 2024 map in effect while adhering to districting principles.
In cross-examination, state attorneys referenced Cooper's deposition, noting that he previously said a community of interest cannot exist 'solely on the basis of race.'
Cooper said his illustrative maps respect communities of interest while also creating two majority-Black districts. He added that his plans kept more counties intact than the state's enacted plan, noting that one of his maps 'better respects the Black Belt than the 2023 plan does,' referring to keep most Black Belt counties together.
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