Under Supreme attack: High Court decisions could erode hard-fought gains

Black Enterprise, Oct, 1995 by Frank McCoy

Black America faces a new Jim Crow era. Nearly 100 years after the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson ruled "separate but equal" accommodations constitutional, many African Americans predict that upcoming rulings on congressional redistricting cases will support a reassertion of white male power.

The cases the Court will hear are Shaw v. Hunt (later Shaw v. Reno) and Vera v. Bush. The former case challenges North Carolina's majority African American 12th District. The latter reviews whether a Texas federal court acted unconstitutionally when it invalidated three minority congressional districts.

Last spring, the Court ruled on three related issues. It declared that school desegregation could not be brought about by creating state-funded magnet schools; it challenged the legality of federal set-aside programs for minorities and women under the equal protection clause of the Constitution; and, in Miller v. Johnson, it upheld a Georgia federal court decision that racial considerations predominated in the decision to create the 11th Congressional District held by Cynthia A. McKinney (D-Ga.). Thus, the district is unconstitutional and must be redrawn.

Elaine R. Jones, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, called the ruling a dangerous step towards the exclusion of African Americans from meaningful political participation."

The decision's long-term impact is unknown. Some say warning bells have rung, signaling that the second Reconstruction is over. Others view the Court's new cases as bids to reduce the black presence in Congress.

But more than Congress is under threat. Selwyn Carter, director of the Southern Regional Council's Voting Rights Program, which has registered more than two million black voters, says last spring's district ruling will spur challenges to African American elected county and city officials, state legislators and school board members.

The Court ruled that if race is the "predominant factor" used to create a legislative district, the equal protection guarantee is potentially violated. But can white males--the majority in all 48 contiguous state legislatures--be trusted to ensure minority representation?

Howard University Political Science Department Chairman Ronald W. Walters says black people will lose in redrawn districts. He contends that, despite the election of former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, "it has been virtually impossible for blacks to elect their own in mostly white districts because of racial bloc voting."

Which raises a question. Is anyone naive enough to think that any congressional districts are drawn without the intention of benefiting one group or another? If not, then it seems that the rules of the game are changed only when nonwhites start winning.