According to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black lawmaker in Congress, “racial gerrymandering” — the deliberate design of congressional districts that discriminate against black populations — has significant historical origins in the United States.
Despite the significant Black population, he remembers communities surrounding his home county of Sumter County, South Carolina, voting massively for pro-segregationist independent candidate George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election.
30 April 2020, in Washington, House Majority Whip James Clyburn answers reporters’ questions at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol.
30 April 2020, in Washington, House Majority Whip James Clyburn answers reporters’ questions at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol.
“Why is this so? They elevated voting by race to an art form. And they utilized the presence of African-Americans to intimidate people into doing what we’re seeing again “Robert Costa, the main election and campaign correspondent for CBS News, recently had an interview with Clyburn.
Clyburn, a Democrat, raised alarm over the impact of redistricting attempts on people of color in many states this year. And he believes that the new initiatives can be linked back to Wallace’s 1968 Southern campaign.
“It’s one thing to read the headlines, but it’s quite another to look behind them. And I have a tendency to read between the lines “Clyburn said.
Depending on the state, this year’s redistricting resulted in a tiny net increase in the number of Democratic-leaning seats across the nation.
However, Republican legislators transformed competitive districts from the preceding decade into reliably Republican ones.
According to a CBS News study of election data from Dave’s Redistricting App, the number of competitive seats in Texas (those with a +/- 5 point political lean) fell from 12 to 2, while the number of Republican-leaning seats climbed by nine.
According to data from the 2020 Census, this occurred despite the expansion of minorities and mixed residents.
Similarly, Georgia’s population rose by over a million in the past decade, spurred by an increase in the number of Black, Asian, and Hispanic citizens in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Incorporating more rural and White districts into the 6th District and “packing” the majority Democratic and minority communities into the 7th District, legislators established one solidly Republican seat north of Atlanta.
Clyburn refused to call such efforts as “racist,” but stated that the maps do provide “race advantage under the veil of party gain.”
“One thing is aggressive redistricting attempts. To suppress Black voter power, that is something else “the representative remarked. “Democrats do indeed seek party benefit. Republicans are interested in partisan events. I have no objection to either of these parties doing it. I have a problem with the outcome negatively impacting the lives of black people.”
Clyburn continued, “They are considering race, but not to be fair, not to be inclusive, but to do the exact opposite, to be exclusive.”
In its upcoming term, the Supreme Court will decide if Republican legislators in Alabama and Louisiana violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by allocating only one minority-majority seat to each state.
According to Census Bureau data, 26.8% of Alabama’s population is Black, although just one-seventh of their congressional districts have a majority-Black population. Although 33% of Louisiana’s population is Black, just 1/6 of their congressional districts have a majority minority population.
In other states, the effects of redistricting are already evident. In 2023, the 14th District, which is currently represented by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, will contain the primarily Black city of Powder Springs. In February, Greene spoke at a conference organized by white nationalists.
Though Greene initially attacked Georgia Republicans for somewhat diminishing the Republican vote share in the state, she told CBS News in May, prior to her primary, “I’m thrilled to have them in my district, and I adore Georgia.”
Clyburn stated that he is “outraged” by the manner in which districts, particularly those with considerable Black populations, have been drawn.
“As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to allow partisan redistricting, some of these legislatures have decided to redraw districts in a way that affords unfair advantage,” he explained.
In the new congressional district plan for South Carolina, Clyburn’s district no longer has a majority minority population. The revised district layout decreased the percentage of Black citizens in his district from 53.3% to 47.82%. South Carolina has no congressional districts with a majority Black population, despite the fact that Black residents make up more than a quarter of the state’s population.
Additionally, there have been allegations of racism in Democratic state maps. In May, many House Democrats attacked the initial plan presented by a court-appointed mapmaker in New York for decreasing the number of Black members of Congress.
John Faso, a former New York Republican congressman, had been assisting Republicans in their dispute with Democrats over congressional and legislative boundaries. He believes that “more and more voters will consider factors other than race when selecting candidates for office.”
“Fair play is what the American people desire,” he said, adding that the political influence of redistricting is sometimes “overstated.”
Faso stated, “On the long run, persons and parties that do not reflect the ideas and values of the people in their state and district will be voted out of office.”
Clyburn stated that while redistricting provides significant political benefits to House Democrats, he views it more as “maintaining balance.” He stated that he supports a nonpartisan approach to redistricting in every state.
However, he indicated that the Democratic party lacks sufficient “will” to alter the process.
Clyburn stated, “The reason we have not devised a method to solve all of this is because we lack the drive to do it.” “Sometimes this is because people fear for their own safety, some fear for their own security, and some simply prefer favor over freedom.”
Clyburn, who was first elected to Congress in 1993, feels that if racial gerrymandering is not addressed, the future of voting rights is “grim.”
“Today, I believe, is the beginning of a process, not its conclusion. The issue then becomes, “Where will it end?” Will the intervention of voters in 2022 bring an end? Or will it receive a second wind and continue till we return to a dark place that none of us believed we would ever again visit?”
Elizabeth Campbell authored a report.