Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991 TAG: 9104120366
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That is now the main issue before Gov. Douglas Wilder and the General Assembly as the lines of Virginia's legislative districts are redrawn. The NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union are insisting that wherever a black-majority district can reasonably be created, it must be.
Nor, apparently, does the legislature have much discretion in the matter. Virginia was one of 10 states brought under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by reason of historic patterns of low participation by black voters. That was seen as prima facie evidence of systematic policies of exclusion, and there can be no question of the accuracy of that assumption in 1965.
The act was extended and remains in force despite the great progress which had been made in sweeping away the last vestiges of discrimination in the exercise of the franchise.
President Reagan had said he would veto the extension but backed off when the votes to sustain that veto failed to materialize. The reason for this was simple. With only a minority of the states under federal supervision - and with most white voters in those states indifferent to the stigma - it had become a purely symbolic issue for both Republicans and Democrats to signify their commitment to civil rights at minimum cost.
The 1991 Virginia plan, therefore, will have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, which has promised action in 60 days. A likely scenario is that Wilder will successfully amend the Senate plan to create two more solid, black-majority districts and that this will pass muster under the pressure of time constraints.
In normal circumstances, candidates for all 140 General Assembly seats would have to qualify by June 12. This year, undoubtedly, that will have to be extended, at least by one month and possibly longer. With such sweeping changes in the electoral map, and given the short notice afforded, the 1991 elections are apt to be a study in confusion and missed opportunities.
But the Democratic leadership is well aware of the hazards of further delay and obfuscation. That could mean a court order directing a special election next year. The last thing that Virginia Democrats want at this hour is to be on a ballot with President Bush at the top of a Republican ticket including candidates for the state Senate and House of Delegates.
The policy of the Department of Justice almost certainly will reflect a 1986 decision of the Supreme Court in a North Carolina redistricting case. The court held, or appeared to hold, that wherever a minority population is geographically compact enough that a district in which it is the majority could be created, it must be done.
Democrats in control of the House of Delegates recognized the hazards and amended their plan, which had included originally only nine black-majority districts, to create 11. There are now six blacks in the House, representing Richmond, Norfolk, Hampton, Portsmouth and Newport News. Black leaders had been holding out for 13 or 14 seats. But a spokesman for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People professed himself satisfied with the grant of 11, and the House plan may withstand federal scrutiny.
The existing state Senate contains three black members: Benjamin Lambert of Richmond, Yvonne Miller of Norfolk, and Robert Scott of Newport News. But Scott's district has a white majority, and he asked that it not be changed. The irony is that Justice may now insist that the one black legislator who has shown himself capable of twice winning the good will of many white voters give up some of those white precincts in order to be further insulated and protected.
The Senate plan, now resting upon Wilder's desk in a condition of fear and trembling, creates only one additional black-majority district, and that with only 52 percent - which falls well below the federal state of grace. The governor has his pen out and almost certainly will propose additional black precincts for the doubtful district, now held by Sen. Elmon Gray of Sussex, and probably will propose one or two more black-majority districts besides.
The legacy of past discrimination and the threat of federal intervention to redress grievances, real or imagined, has now extended to city councils in Virginia, and this will be a point of contention in drawing the lines for supervisors' districts in many counties.
Richmond was the first large city in the state to go to a ward system, and it is fair to say that Richmond has enjoyed the most fractured and racially divided politics in the commonwealth. Norfolk, which has adhered to at-large elections, is close to accepting a ward system.
Roanoke, which has regularly elected blacks to City Council since 1970, and enjoyed the services of a popular black mayor for most of those years, may now adopt a modified ward plan.
It is doubtful that the abandonment of at-large representation is required under federal mandates. But advocates of such plans persist in claiming they are necessary to guarantee the "right kind" of representation for minority voters. As Del. Ken Melvin, D-Portsmouth, said of the revised House plan, "It gives black folks an opportunity to elect candidates of choice."
The large question is: Does "ghettoizing" the black vote serve to increase or decrease the political influence of black voters? With the black vote largely segregated in some 12 percent of General Assembly seats, it means that the overwhelming majority can look the other way with impunity. It also means that successful black politicians, skilled at catering to a predominantly black constituency, may have difficulty moving on to the congressional or statewide level.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
by CNB