Release:

A federal court has ordered Mississippi to redraw its 2022 state legislative maps in several areas after concluding those maps unlawfully dilute the voting strength of Black Mississippians.

Civil rights advocates challenged the maps and showed at trial that the maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Plaintiffs presented extensive expert testimony and testimony from Black Mississippians from across the state to show that the political process in the challenged legislative districts was not equally open to Black voters.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Mississippi, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Mississippi Center for Justice, and civil rights attorney Carroll Rhodes filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP and voters from across the state.

The court ruled that multiple new Black-majority districts should have been created — at least two in the state Senate and one in the state House. In the absence of Black-majority districts, stark racial polarization, combined with the history of racial discrimination in the state and other factors, deprives Black voters in the state of the right to participate equally in the political process, in violation of Section 2.

The ruling, issued last night, requires the creation of new Black-majority Senate districts in the areas around DeSoto County in Northern Mississippi and in and around the city of Hattiesburg, and a new Black-majority House district in Chickasaw and Monroe counties.