redistricting
February 12, 2016 -
North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature redrew congressional districts to make two of them majority-black — and then moved this year's primary up two months. Now, with absentee voting already underway, those districts have been ruled unconstitutional and the legislature ordered to draw new ones.
January 29, 2016 -
Voting rights activists in a number of Southern states have taken state and federal election district maps to court in recent years — and the cases are going their way.
December 9, 2015 -
In a Texas case titled Evenwel v. Abbott, the plaintiffs are seeking to count eligible voters rather than the total population when drawing political districts — a move that could significantly shift political representation to older, whiter communities in the South and elsewhere across the country.
September 25, 2015 -
The recent case of Ahmed Mohamed, a Sudanese-American student in Irving, Texas who was detained for bringing a homemade clock to school, has shed light on tension between the Dallas suburb's racially diverse population and its nearly entirely white local leadership — a dynamic that has persisted despite efforts to ensure local leadership reflects the broader community.
July 10, 2015 -
Wealthy special interests are increasingly spending money to influence state judicial races, threatening the independence of judges and damaging public confidence in the integrity of the courts.
April 23, 2015 -
The U.S. Supreme Court sent North Carolina's redistricting challenge back to the state's high court this week, asking it to reconsider whether the legislature relied too heavily on race in drawing voting lines. The decision comes following similar rulings in cases out of Alabama and Virginia, offering hope for an end to racial gerrymandering.
April 7, 2015 -
The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation has launched a "Southern Voices" oral history project to capture the stories of Southern leaders working for social and economic justice. This installment focuses on voting rights.
