State redistricting draws lawsuit risk

LITTLE ROCK — Civil-rights groups have taken Arkansas to court at least three times over the past three decades about how the state’s black population is divided among legislative districts.

The recently released 2010 Census data set the stage for a state board to draw new boundaries for Arkansas’ legislative districts, the latest step in a process that has slowly led to an increase in the number of black lawmakers over the past three decades.

The number of black Arkansans dropped from 15.58 percent of the population in2000 to 15.33 percent in 2010. The state population grew 9.1 percent.

NAACP Arkansas president Dale Charles of Little Rock said the group will likely sue the state again if the number of predominantly black districts drops.

“I think that there’s going to be a serious challenge this time around because I don’t think the minority population has decreased that much,” Charles said. “When you start drawing the lines it’s about who do you want to protect and who do you want to lock out.”

Thirty-eight years ago Arkansas had no black legislators - although in the 1800s Arkansas had about two dozen - but redistricting and a series of legal battles over the shape and racial composition of legislative districts led to an increase in the number of black lawmakers.

Currently, of Arkansas’ 133 legislators, 15 are black. That’s 11 percent.

Responsibility for shifting the state’s legislative districts belongs to the Arkansas Board of Apportionment, made up of the governor, the secretary of state and the attorney general.

COURT PRECEDENT

Every redistricting since 1940 has been challenged in court.

In 1989, M.C. Jeffers of Forrest City and others sued the state over the 1981 redistricting map, which included four majority-black House districts and one such Senate district. In the case, Jeffers v. Clinton, the U.S. District Court ruled that the state’s map violated the federal Voting Rights Act.

The court ordered an increase of majority-black House districts to 13 and Senate districts to three for the 1990 election.

“It really kind of opened up and allowed African-Americans an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice,” Charles said. “It makes all the difference in the world because people have a better opportunity to elect a person who represents their experience.”

During redistricting after the 1990 Census, the Board of Apportionment decided to keep that same number of majority-black districts. The same plaintiffs again challenged the state map in U.S. District Court, seeking additional majority-black districts. But a three-judge panel ruled that the state’s changes were sufficient.

In 2002 a U.S. District judge threw out a lawsuit from the NAACP that challenged the constitutionality of the realigned legislative districts after the 2000 Census.

The board created 13 House districts and four Senate districts as majority-black, which amounted to one more majority-black Senate district than in the 1990s. At the time the board was made up of Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee and two Democrats: Attorney General Mark Pryor and Secretary of State Sharon Priest.

The NAACP had sought 17 House districts and six Senate districts as majority black. Huckabee called for splitting the difference, with 15 such House districts and five majority-black Senate districts.

The 17 total districts created in 2001 that have a majority-black population are all located in the Delta and the center of the state.

Charles said he expects another lawsuit this year because the political-party makeup of the board has not changed. Gov. Mike Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel are Democrats; Secretary of State Mark Martin is a Republican.

University of Arkansas at Fayetteville political scientist Janine Parry said creating more districts where a minority group is the majority block of voters can be good or bad, depending on the political party.

“It can facilitate the election of African-Americans to the Legislature,” or “it can also serve to dilute the Democrat vote in the surrounding districts,” she said. “African-American voters are more likely to be aligned with the Democratic Party, which is why it worries the Democrats.”

She said the Democratic Party might be worried about consolidating people who may vote for Democrats in one district. She said some Republicans want to create majority-black districts to dilute the number of Democrats in other districts.

“That is some fierce politics there on behalf of both parties,” Parry said.

Governor’s office spokesman Matt DeCample said the goal is to finish legislative redistricting by the summer. He said the apportionment board has not considered whether it will change the predominantly black districts.

“There’s just not a strategy laid out yet as far as approaching issues with minority districts,” DeCample said. “We’re just not at that stage.”

The board is going to be mindful of what the court has said in the past, DeCample said.

“Anytime you undergo this type of procedure you’re going to look at what happened before and try to do the things that went well before and avoid the pitfalls that led to problems or lawsuits the previous time,” DeCample said.

DeCample said some staff members connected with apportionment have worked for state government for several decades and want to avoid mistakes of the past.

Deputy Secretary of State A.J. Kelly said the Jeffers case left an “acute understanding” that minority populations should be able to elect a representative who reflects their interest.

“Everyone concerned would like to avoid litigation if possible,” he said.

Kelly said when the board redraws the districts later this year it will likely try to keep some of those districts together.

The Legislature’s Black Caucus, with 11 members in the House and four in the Senate, will keep an eye on the process as well.

Chairman Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, said the group wants to keep the same number or see it increase and will be “vocal” and “intimately involved” with redistricting.

“We certainly feel that any changes in any legislative or congressional districts need to be drawn where African-Americans who decide to run will have a fair chance of winning,” Steele, a member of the House, said.

One caucus member, Rep. Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff, said people want to pick a person who holds the same values.

“The representation that is reflected in those districts speaks to the needs of the minority community in a way that while others might be sensitive or might want to be knowledgeable about those concerns, if you are not experienced in those concerns then you’re not going to be as sensitive,” Wilkins said.

He said a white politician would have trouble representing the interests of the black community the same way a black politician would. Wilkins likened it to how, as a man, he can’t fully be sensitive to issues women care about.

“I am supportive of the issues that women are concerned about but by the same token I do have sense enough to know that having not lived that life, having not experienced the discrimination that women have experienced, I can’t be as sensitive to those issues as a women who understands those issues would be.”

Wilkins’ district, District 17, is 68.2 percent black. His father, Henry Wilkins III, was elected to the House in 1973 and was one of the first black lawmakers elected in the 20th century.

DISTRICT CHANGES

During the last redistricting, which went into effect in the 2002 elections, the apportionment board intentionally tried to create more districts that would consistently elect a black person to represent them.

Of the 13 House districts, all but two have elected a black politician in every election since the new districts were drawn. In the four Senate districts, three have been held by a black politician since 2002.

Population in those 13 districts has changed but they continue to have the largest black populations in the state, all more than 55 percent.

Senate District 5 is made up of parts of Phillips, Arkansas and Jefferson counties. Senate District 16 is made up of parts of Crittenden, Lee, Phillips and St. Francis counties.

Senate districts 33 and 34 are in Pulaski County. The new census data show that all four Senate districts continue to have a black population or more than 55 percent.

Wilkins said that percentage should be high enough to warrant drawing districts with a largely minority-group population.

“Certainly in southeast Arkansas and eastern Arkansas there’s been an overall loss of population but what there has not been in those areas is a loss of percentage of minority population,” Wilkins said. “We’ll see how that turns out but I certainly hope we keep [at least] the same number of districts that we currently have.”