Today, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) sent a letter to the Louisiana State Senate and the Louisiana Senate and House Governmental Affairs Committees urging them to comply with Section Two of the Voting Rights Act in light of the recent ruling in Milligan v. Merrill. In January, a panel of federal judges unanimously held that the congressional redistricting plan enacted by the State of Alabama likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (“Section 2”) because it failed to provide Alabama’s Black voters with an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice.
In Louisiana, Black residents are even more severely underrepresented in the congressional delegation than Black Alabamians. Alabama’s population is 27.1% Black, but only one of the seven districts in the congressional map that was struck down by the federal court is majority-Black (14.2% of seats). In Louisiana, that disparity is even more severe: the population is 33.1% Black, but only one of the six districts in the current congressional map is majority-Black (16.7% of seats).
Read our full letter here.
Read the decision in Milligan v. Merrill here.
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization. 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. 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 NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Follow LDF on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
