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Article: Racial gerrymandering: how is it changing our politics?
- Article from:
- Campaigns & Elections
- Article date:
- April 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Campaigns & Elections, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The legacy of post-Reconstruction race relations has woven upward through our political history like Kudzu vine, flowering in what some consider the impending doom for the very party who a century ago employed odious disenfranchisement and gerrymandering schemes to solidify its geographical base.
The response to this legacy, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its judicial interpretations, spurred in the 1990s a wave of district gerrymandering that consolidated black voting strength into "majority-minority" districts. These districts have been consistently challenged in court on constitutional grounds, amounting to what some call "affirmative action with maps."