Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 15, 1994 TAG: 9408150071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``The virtual absence of blacks from the state's town councils indicates a continuing racial polarization at the grass-roots level,'' authors of a study on the effects of the Voting Rights Act conclude.
Tom Morris, a political scientist and president of Emory & Henry College, and Neil Bradley, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Foundation's Southern regional office, co-wrote the Virginia chapter in the book, ``Quiet Revolution in the South.''
The book, the result of a project funded by the National Science Foundation, focuses on the eight Southern states covered by the measure President Lyndon Johnson signed into law Aug. 6, 1965. The law focused on states where blacks had suffered most from discrimination.
Morris said the act was one of the most significant actions ever by the federal government, because it clearly was a major infringement on states' rights. It still requires Virginia and seven other states to get federal permission to change any election law or district boundary.
Virginia's political leaders, Morris said, always have taken offense to the Voting Rights Act because ``the federal government is saying, `We don't trust you to change.'''
Virginia, in 1973, was the first state to seek exemption from the act.
But Morris said the act never would have passed had it not been for such abuses as poll taxes, literacy tests and, in earlier years, exclusive white primary elections denying blacks their right to vote.
Morris said Wilder's election in 1989 was a poignant reminder of progress in overcoming racial barriers. It means race is not always the determining factor in the outcome of elections. But he pointed out that Wilder's winning margin came largely from Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, the fastest growing regions with the largest populations of newcomers to the state.
``The irony of Virginia is that it is the only state to have popularly elected a governor who is African-American,'' Morris said. ``One can look at that and say Virginia has certainly come a long way. It certainly was a big election. ... But at the local level, white voters do not in any significant numbers vote for African-American candidates.''
Morris said there has been more progress at the statewide level because the structure of local elections in Virginia dilutes the voting strength of blacks, who make up nearly 20 percent of the state's population.
Most cities, towns and counties have at-large elections. If there are eight seats to be filled, all voters have eight votes and theoretically have a chance to influence who gets elected to all eight seats.
``It allows local representatives to focus on the greater good of the community rather than one specific district,'' Morris said. ``It just happens to have significant racial consequences because it does permit dilution of the black vote.''
In a single-member-district system, the city is divided into geographical districts, and voters are limited to voting for a single candidate running to represent their district.
When Norfolk began electing its council members by district in 1991, nine of Virginia's 41 cities followed suit and abandoned at-large elections. Lawsuits or objections by the Justice Department forced the changes when city annexations diluted the voting power of blacks.
Two years ago, Roanoke City Council, which is elected at-large, voted 5-2 against establishing a ward system. In July, some black citizens and residents of Southeast Roanoke approached council with a proposal for a modified ward system, consisting of five districts, with the mayor and vice mayor elected at-large.
Opponents of the ward system, including Mayor David Bowers, note that the council already has two black members - 28.96 percent of the seven seats - while 21.8 percent of the city's voting-age population is black. They argue that instituting a ward system would dilute minority voting strength in the area, not strengthen it.
Proponents of the ward system in Roanoke say it's not about race, but about representation. It would give people in all areas of town a voice on council and someone they can approach with problems, proponents say.
Morris said Virginia lags behind Deep South states in electing blacks to local offices largely because it lagged behind in the filing of civil rights lawsuits challenging at-large election systems.
But Virginia leads other states in demonstrating that blacks can win statewide offices, Morris said, primarily because white and black Democrats have formed a strong coalition.
``The pattern has sort of reversed itself in Virginia,'' Morris said in a telephone interview from his college office.
When the Voting Rights Act was extended in 1982, supporters pointed out that Virginia, with four blacks in the state House of Delegates and one in the state Senate, had the lowest ratio of black legislators in the South.
Morris said the state also has a poor record in the judiciary; fewer than 5 percent of Virginia's judges are black.
Virginia is one of four states in which the General Assembly elects judges. In 1990, the article said, there was one black justice on the seven-member state Supreme Court, one black judge on the 10-member state Court of Appeals, five among the 127 circuit court judges and nine among the 184 district court judges.
The irony of the judiciary in Virginia, Morris said, is that few blacks have been elected in a system controlled by Democrats in the legislature, a party in which blacks are a major constituency.
Republicans have long argued that the system should be more independent of politics, so Morris said that if Republicans gain the majority of seats and change the system, more black judges might get elected.
Staff writer Matt Chittum contributed information to this story.
by CNB