ACLU lawsuit claims a Mississippi county's districts discriminate against Black voters
A lawsuit has been filed against DeSoto County alleging the county's mapping of its five supervisor districts discriminates against Black voters and violates the Voting Rights Act.
The lawsuit was filed Sept. 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi Oxford Division by the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, the Legal Defense Fund and Harvard Election Law Clinic.
Filed on behalf of the DeSoto County NAACP, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and two individuals, the lawsuit alleges that the current supervisor district map created in 2022 violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. ACLU-MS said the map discriminates against Black DeSoto County residents and dilutes their voting power by splitting the majority-Black city of Horn Lake between supervisor districts 3 and 4.
ACLU-MS citied statistics which it said showed a lack of representation for Black voters — though DeSoto's population is more than 30% Black, none of the 25 county officials elected by the map's district lines are Black. These include the Board of Supervisors, Board of Education, the Election Commission, the Justice Court and Constables.
DeSoto County officials did not respond to request for comment.
In a statement released by the ACLU-MS, individuals involved in the lawsuit laid out their reasoning for pursuing it.
"The racially discriminatory electoral map in DeSoto County not only dilutes the voting power of Black residents but also denies the representation they deserve," said Elsie Cooke-Holmes, international president and chair of the National Board of Directors of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. "Our organization will continue to fight for a fair and just democracy where every voice is heard, and every vote counts."
Jarvis Dortch, executive director at ACLU-MS, echoed those thoughts in the statement.
"Unfortunately, the current Supervisor district lines are drawn to favor white voters and harm voters of color," Dortch said. "A community will only thrive when all voices can be heard, and some votes don’t count more than others."
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In order for the lawsuit to be successful, the ACLU-MS must prove three preconditions, as outlined in the 1986 Supreme Court case Thornburg v. Gingles:
The minority group is "sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in a single-member district"
The minority group is politically cohesive, meaning its members usually vote similarly
The "majority votes sufficiently as a bloc to enable it ... usually to defeat the minority's preferred candidate."
This lawsuit comes two months after a federal court ordered Mississippi to redraw its legislative districts. The court ruled in favor of the NAACP, finding that the state is violating section 2 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act with the legislative boundaries created in 2022, and diluting Black voting power. The state has until 2025 to create a new Black-majority Senate district in areas around DeSoto County and around Hattiesburg in South Mississippi.
Jacob Wilt is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at jacob.wilt@commercialappeal.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: ACLU claims DeSoto County districts discriminate against Black voters
