Race & Redistricting
After the 2021 Census data is released, a tradition of each decade since 1790 will begin, the state legislatures will take this data to redraw both their congressional and legislative districts. Things have changed significantly since the 1790s. Today, there are districts with race in mind. These districts are drawn in a way to ensure that minorities are elected in public office in rough proportion to their share of the population.
These race-conscious districts are not a product of intent to keep minorities separate from the rest of the population, these districts actually come as a byproduct from the Voting Rights Act of 1975.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law on August 6, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. Black people in the South faced many obstacles to voting including but not limited to, poll taxes, literacy tests, the jelly-bean test, as well as other reasons to deny them voting.
The jelly-bean test was only one of the demeaning tactics to prevent Black people from voting during the Jim Crow era. Registrars would ask Black voters to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar to allow them to vote. President Obama mentioned the jelly-bean test in a eulogy for Congressman John Lewis.
“We many no longer have to guess the number of jelly-beans in a jar in order to case a ballot,” said Obama. “But even as we sit here, there are those in power [that] are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting – by closing polling locations, and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws, and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to an election that is going to be dependent on mailed-in ballots so people don’t get sick.”
President Obama has not been the only one to talk about voting suppression against minorities. Olga Koulisis, a professor at Murray State University, said this type of voter suppression has taken place even after the adoption of the 15th Amendment in 1870, which gave Black men the right to vote.
Although the 15th Amendment prevented voting discrimination it did not “prevent violent voter intimidation as local whites often policed the behavior of racial minorities within their communities,” Koulisis wrote.
William Mulligan, another professor at Murray State, gave an example of this voter intimidation.
“It was not uncommon in the late 19th, early part of the 20th century, for armed white men to go to the polls to try to keep African Americans from voting,” said Mulligan. “And they would have signs,” often with racial slurs. “Seeing armed people parading around and talking about going to the polls and carrying their weapons into the polls, [is] a terrifying reminder of the use of violence to intimidate minorities, especially African Americans, from voting.”
Voting suppression only continued when numerous southern states instituted literacy tests and poll taxes, while concurrently offering exemptions for illiterate poor white people via grandfather clauses.
These voter suppression laws were usually coded in non-racial terms. Instead of saying that black people were not allowed to vote they implemented literacy tests, state’s right to determine voting requirements, civic exams, and poll taxes, all of which resulted in racial distinctions. Following the law that these Southern states created led to a system where many whites could vote, while people of color could not. It is important to remember that the states were able to use literacy tests and poll taxes to successfully suppress minority votes because people of color experienced inequalities in education and economic opportunities. Political suppression was tied to systematic educational and economic inequalities.”
A copy of a poll tax from 1865 showed a total of $2.50. During that time many poor people only made $300-$400 a year, and the tax poll represented a significant fee.
The literacy tests by comparison were not much better. The questions were mostly about history, civics, and specific clauses in the Constitution, making them difficult for the average person. One question is as follows:
“If a bill is passed by Congress and the President refuses to sign it and does not sent it back to Congress in session with the specified period of time, is the bill defeated or does it become law?”
Alonzo Davis, recalled a test that his father faced when trying to register to vote in the 1940s. On the exam, he was asked ‘How many windows in the White House?’ Most knew that the literacy tests were completely fraudulent because illiterate whites could pass them while faculty from Tuskegee University often could not.
The 24th Amendment, which was adopted in 1964 finally got rid of poll taxes in federal elections. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 expanded the political participation of minorities. The law had a largely felt impact. By the end of 1965, a quarter of a million new black voters had been registered. Unfortunately, literacy tests continued through the South until amendments were added to the Voting Rights Act in 1970. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was amended twice more in 1975 and 1982.
It was a hard and bloody battle for black people to receive the right to vote. Many were beaten, abused, and even killed. Sadly, the fight is not over yet. The biggest threats to meaningful black votes are the practices of cracking and packing. By packing districts, putting all black voter’s into one district thereby packing their votes, tends to “bleach” the adjoining districts. In the conservative South, the whiter surrounding districts tend to be Republican while the black districts are Democratic.
Mulligan once said, “Extending rights to African Americans benefited white(s) and all Americans. We all benefit when more people are included in this system and given full rights and freedom.” When we all come together we can make a difference.
Michael P. McDonald & Micah Altman, The Public Mapping Project 1-16 (2018).
Gerrymandering, explained, The Washington Post, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGLRJ12uqmk.
Winburn, Jonathan. The Realities of Redistricting: Following the Rules and Limiting Gerrymandering in State Legislative Redistricting. Lexington Books, 2008.
Tarter, Brent. Gerrymanders: How Redistricting Has Protected Slavery, White Supremacy, and Partisan Minorities in Virginia. University of Virginia Press, 2019.
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/redistricting-race-and-the-voting-rights-act