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Today, the Legal Defense Fund, the Elmore County Branch of the NAACP, the Elmore County Civic Improvement League, the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) of Alabama sent a letter to the Prattville, Alabama City Counsel outlining concerns with the Council’s proposed redistricting map and whether the Council has created meaningful opportunities to ensure that all Prattville residents have an opportunity to participate in the redistricting process.

In the last decade, Prattville has seen both an overall population growth and an increase in racial and ethnic diversity. The Black voting-age population now makes up 20.7% of the city’s population, compared to 15.7 % in 2010. Despite the growth of Prattville’s Black community, the proposed redistricting maps eliminate Prattville’s only majority-Black district. Given the city’s changing demographics and other circumstances discussed below, this plan likely violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because it fails to provide Black voters with a meaningful opportunity to elect candidates of their choice and participate in the political process. By proposing to take away the only district that currently provides an opportunity for Black voters to elect their preferred candidates, in the face of the demographic, voting, and other life circumstances of Black people in Prattville, the council’s actions are also suggestive of intentional discrimination. 

The letter outlines several recommendations for the Council: 

  1. Revisit its proposal and consider and analyze whether Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act requires a redistricting plan that contains at least one district where Black voters form a majority of the voting-age population, including by determining whether it can develop a hypothetical majority- Black district that respects traditional redistricting principles and whether there is racial bloc voting in the City, among other considerations;
  2. Delay a vote on the current proposed map; and
  3. Moving forward, make a concerted effort to ensure that the community is meaningfully included at all stages of the redistricting process.

Read the full letter here.

LDF has been deeply involved in the redistricting process in Alabama and several key states. Read more about our work here.

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 Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.

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