The African American Redistricting Collaborative (AARC) will hold a press conference today at 10 a.m. at the California African America Museum in Exposition Park to discuss the latest developments in redrawing legislative boundaries. The AARC’s press advisory notes that it “… is convening a press conference to declare the African American community’s refusal to accept any reduction in political representation.”
It continues, stating that “Redistricting plans currently under consideration would effectively and completely cut out long-time African American stronghold [sic] of political representation–unfairly dividing the African American population in the 33rd, 35th and 37th congressional districts. The net result is only [one] African American seat.”
The group is charging that based on “visualization” maps published on the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) website over the Independence Day weekend district lines were redrawn in a way that will significantly reduce African American political representation in Congress and the state Legislature.
AARC is particularly concerned about the visualization that effectively alters the 33rd congressional district which, in its various incarnations, has been represented by African Americans for decades–first Julian Dixon, then Diane Watson and now Karen Bass.
The California Friends of the African American Caucus was the first to express alarm over the latest visualization. In a recent communique it noted that “Business interests from across the state, along with the California Chamber of Commerce have formed a coalition, called the California Institute for Jobs, the Economy and Education, to harness resources, like many other groups, and engage California’s new citizen redistricting process.”
The Caucus claims that the visualization “leaves Los Angeles, and the entire state for that matter, essentially with only one Black Senate district.”
Additionally, AARC officials assail the way the new visualizations link unrelated communities like Tujunga to the Crenshaw District, cutting through Mid-city. They also say assets are being transferred or ripped from the African American community, including the California African American Museum and Leimert Park.
They further assert that the AARC “community and civil rights leaders, attorneys and clergy monitoring [the] troubling developments admonish the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) not to reduce African American representation at any level. Currently, draft maps strike deadly blows to the heart of hard-won African American political representation and diminish Black voting power in the following ways:
- * “Slash African American representation in the California State Senate in half, reducing our ranks from two senators to one by placing neighborhoods like Vermont Knolls and Morningside Park in a district with farflung suburbs as distant as Lakewood.
- * “Decimate Black voting power in California Assemlby districts 48 and 51, potentially reducing representation from six current African Americans to just four, and perhaps even two.
- * “Destroy a current congressional district by removing neighborhoods like Baldwin Hills and View Park, and assets including Expo Park and USC.”
According to CRC Commissioner Andre Parvenu, the body is looking down the road five to 10 years, and is afraid that if the lines remain essentially the same, African Americans will not be able to elect a candidate of their choice in districts where they represent less than a majority.
But according to Erica Teasley Linnick, AARC coordinator, African Americans have in the past been able and should be able to continue in the future to elect a candidate of their choice with a 30 percent voter concentration.
Still, AARC is particularly alarmed by the actions of CRC counsel George Brown of the law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher regarding the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
“The VRA, won as a result of the African American-led Civil Rights Movement, is a legal remedy to long-standing, documented discrimination against minority groups. Instead, Mr. Brown pressures the commissioners to adopt a distorted, perverse interpretation of the VRA that actually works to disenfranchise Black voters,” explained Marqueece Harris-Dawson, CEO of the Community Coalition.
What is also disturbing to AARC is that it and the other major ethnic groups sat down and negotiated a set of unity maps that included compromises over district lines that appeased each interest.
Parvenu said the maps were extremely beneficial and helpful, but explained that the commission had to be careful as they constructed the new district lines.
The difference is actually a matter of interpretation. Parvenu said Brown is urging the commission to keep the VRA in mind and create districts where a majority concentration of African American voters will strengthen the chance that the district will elect the representative of their choice. A byproduct of this approach, says the collaborative, is that there could actually be fewer African American politicians elected.
On the other hand, the collaborative believes that there does not need to be a majority of Black voters in a district in order for an African American to be elected to represent that area.
In addition to visualization maps, Teasely Linnick said the CRC has scrapped plans to release a new map on July 14, but will instead continue to put up new visualizations and encourage the community to submit comments online.
They do, however, expect to release the “almost final” maps July 28, and will give community members one final 14-day public review opportunity before voting on and submitting the final map to the Legislature by Aug. 15.
To see the visualizations and maps and make comments, go to the website www.wedrawthelines.org.
