Black Caucus Prepares Challenge to Still Unseen Statewide Redistricting Plan

Black Caucus members from left to right, Rep. Karen Camper, Rep. G.A. Hardaway and Rep. Johnnie Turner.

African American state lawmakers are preparing a legal challenge to redistricting plans they’ve yet to see in full. The Tennessee Black Caucus is feeling shut out of the process, which is being led by Republicans.

A committee tapped with the once-in-a-decade job of redrawing district lines doesn’t include a single black lawmaker. And Rep. G. A. Hardaway of Memphis says he can’t see an equitable plan emerging without minority input.

“We don’t believe you can put all the ingredients in a cake and then invite us in and ask what ingredients we would want to put into it. Then you’re going to end up with a mess.”

Hardaway says the timetable laid out by the leadership of the General Assembly would give lawmakers just a few weeks in January to recommend changes.

Rep. Karen Camper – a Democrat from Memphis – says there may not be time to mount a lawsuit once Republicans make the redistricting plans public. Camper says, however, she has not seen discrimination.

“I personally have not. But if there is, you don’t want to be in a reactionary mode.”

The Black Caucus of State Lawmakers is meeting with civil rights attorneys from the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

This is the first time in more than a century that Republicans have been in charge of redistricting. Black Caucus members – all Democrats – say, however, their legal threats are on behalf of minorities, not a single party.

The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 – which was renewed in 2006 – prohibits racially discriminatory election practices. This year, lawsuits have been filed in at least 28 states alleging discrimination and gerrymandering.