By: Major W. Cox
The creation of majority African American congressional districts attempts to solve the perceived problem of minority representation in congress, but these districts create a paradox for integration. On one hand, racial integration is a core American value manifested by our public institutions. On the other hand, these racially drawn political districts stand in direct opposition to our nation's half century commitment to racial integration.
Donald Bogie, the director of Auburn University Montgomery's Center for Demographic and Cultural Research, compares these "minority" districts to South Africa's homelands. He says, "[politically] we're moving in the direction of South Africa." According to Dr. Bogie, Alabama's new Seventh Congressional District contains many of the worst social and economic conditions in the state. The new seventh district was redrawn during reapportionment to include a majority African American population.
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the legal doctrine of "Separate but Equal," established in 1898 with the Plessy decision. In the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, the court ruled that racial segregation is "inherently unequal." Now, nearly forty years later, politicians have devised a new scheme to segregate us by race . . ."majority black congressional districts." These congressional districts are a tragic manifestation of racism in our society. I fear that so-called "minority" districts will become political reservations for neglected Americans, a place where they can be contained by a culture of poverty not unlike those reservations created to confine Native Americans during the last century.
History can be instructive with respect to racial matters. . . our society has been here before. In 1866 at the end of the Civil War, the Reconstruction Congress passed a civil rights act. When combined with the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, former slaves received full citizenship, equal rights, and protection under United States law. This legislation allowed African Americans to participate in the political process and they were elected to myriad political offices, including the U.S. Congress, in the years that followed. However, by the turn of the century, the political tides had turned and America had a new racial destiny. . . "Separate but Equal."
As we approach the end of this century, it is tempting to ponder a few centennial similarities. For example, the Civil War ended slavery in the 1860s and the Civil Rights Movement ended segregation in the 1960s. A comparative examination of the country's political situation during the three decades following the 1860s and the 1960s yields a worrisome picture.
Hundreds of African Americans held elected office following both the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. The politics of the post-Civil War era robbed millions of Americans, who suffered in that war, of their manifested desire for racial peace. It is chillingly similar that today, millions of Americans are again left standing at the threshold of racial harmony while a cadre of marginal politicians attempt to divert us with racial politics and minority districts. These are the individuals that would divert us from our destiny with Martin Luther King's vision of a "color-blind society."
The post-Reconstruction administrations of the 1880s and 1890s failed to enforce civil rights law. During these years, lynch law reigned as the law of the land as far as African Americans were concerned. Today, one's skin-color remains a barrier to justice. Some African American officials claim that the justice department is slow to investigate civil rights violations while targeting black elected officials for prosecution.
Another troubling centennial similarity occurs in the Supreme Court. In the 1880's, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted much of the civil rights law enacted by the Reconstruction Congress. A similar gutting of civil rights law took place during the 1980s.
Redistricting is a legitimate function of government. However, redrawing congressional districts along racial boundaries is misguided policy. If allowed to continue, this political strategy will undermine the real gains our society has made toward reaching our racial destiny . . ."Equal Rights."
I'm not persuaded by the argument that these race-based districts are necessary to elect African American political candidates. Today, African American candidates are winning elections in majority white districts. California Congressman Ron Dellium, Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder, and New York Mayor David Dinkins are three examples of the many African American candidates elected to offices in majority white electoral districts. I believe that most Americans find the lines that draw these districts just as repugnant as were those lines indicating the back of the bus twenty five years ago.
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Originally Published: March 1993, Montgomery Advertiser
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