Fayette County Courthouse. (Photo: Somervilletn.org)
SOMERVILLE — Fayette County commissioners violated the Voting Rights Act with their adoption of a 2021 redistricting plan that stripped Black voters of equal opportunity, the U.S. Justice Department claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
“The County Commission deliberately rejected multiple districting plans that would have combined Black communities in districts that would allow Black voters to elect representatives of their choice,” a news release from the department states.
In doing so, the commission rejected the “explicit advice” of both its own redistricting committee and outside redistricting counsel, which had both endorsed plans that included districts with majority Black voting age populations and warned that choosing a plan without such districts would expose the county to lawsuits.
The commission instead adopted a plan with no majority-minority districts that was not one of the final two maps recommended by the redistricting committee, voting 10-8 with one abstention. A month later, the commission again rejected advice that their chosen plan would “not hold up under litigation” and adopted a modified version of the map — still without any majority-minority districts — in a 12-6 vote with one abstention.
Black voters should have the equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice, but the redistricting map adopted by Fayette County did not provide that opportunity.
– Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
County legislative bodies must consider minority representation while developing new districts, according to the state comptroller’s local redistricting guide.
Fayette County Mayor Rhea “Skip” Taylor confirmed the county is reviewing the lawsuit, but declined further comment.
The lawsuit further alleges that the district plan adopted in 2021 built off of a 2011 redistricting cycle in which the county commission also “successfully diminished Black political power.” In 2010, four Black officials held seats on the commission. That dropped to one by 2018, then to zero after the commission adopted the plan with no majority-Black districts in 2021.
The county has a Black voting age population of 25.9% but no Black candidate has been elected to the 19-member count commission since the 2021 plan was adopted, though four Black candidates ran. Black incumbent commissioner Sylvester Logan, who had previously won election for many years, lost in a Republican primary election to a white candidate after the district lines were redrawn, the lawsuit states.
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The suit, filed in the U.S. District court for the Western District of Tennessee, seeks to prevent the plan from being used in future elections, in addition to a court declaration that the plan “was adopted with the intent, at least in part, of diluting the voting strength of the county’s Black voters.”
“Black voters should have the equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice, but the redistricting map adopted by Fayette County did not provide that opportunity,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated in a news release. “The Justice Department is committed to enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and ensuring all eligible citizens have an equal opportunity to choose their elected officials. Our democracy works best when all communities have a fair and equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.”
The suit also points to Fayette County’s history of discrimination, citing two lawsuits filed by the federal government in the 1950s and 1960s to protect Black voters’ rights.
Of the roughly 44,175 people living in Fayette County, 69.5% are white and 27.8% are Black, according to 2023 U.S. Census estimates. The county’s Black residents experience significant disparities: 21.7% of Black residents live below the poverty line, compared to 4.3% of white residents, and the mean per capita income for white residents is nearly double that of Black residents.
No Black resident has ever held a countywide office, represented Fayette County in a state office or held a judgeship in Fayette County, according to the lawsuit.
Fayette County is one of a cluster of rural West Tennessee counties projected to see explosive growth in the coming decades, thanks in part to the new Ford Motor Company electric vehicle manufacturing plant located just north of the county in Stanton, Tennessee.
Advocacy groups Tennessee for All and BlueOval Good Neighbors have underscored historic disadvantages faced by Black Fayette County residents in a push to negotiate a legally binding community benefits agreement with Ford. They say the plant and the growth that comes with it will hit minority and low-income households hardest as the cost of living increases.
The organization points to the state comptroller’s 2022 attempt to take over the charter of Mason, a small, majority-Black town near the border of Tipton and Fayette counties, and reports of the state low-balling Black farmers for land needed to build transportation infrastructure for the project as part of an overarching theme.
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