“Not surprisingly, though black voters in 1960 comprised 25 percent of Fayette’s population according to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, at-large voting in the county — a structural wall of exclusion — prevented black voters from ever electing a candidate of choice to the school board or county commission. Indeed, prior to the recent successful lawsuit by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, no black candidate served on either of those local boards in Fayette’s nearly 200-year history, even though at least 12 black candidates (from both parties) ran and lost to white candidates.”
“In that case, a federal district court found Fayette’s at-large method of election, in combination with racially polarized voting, violates the Voting Rights Act because it essentially guarantees black voters cannot elect their candidates of choice.”
Read Leah Aden‘s full op-ed here.
Read a response to Aden’s piece from a member of the Fayette County Board of Commissioners.
