(From Alcorn State redistricting hearing livestream)
- Only one person at Tuesday’s hearing spoke in support of race neutral redistricting.
Of the nearly 20 people who spoke at the fourth redistricting meeting held Tuesday at Alcorn State University, only one person publicly said they support “race neutral” redistricting.
Over the past several weeks, the Joint Committee on Redistricting and Reapportionment has been holding hearings to gather public input from Mississippians in response to pending legislative and congressional redistricting in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Callais decision which ruled racial gerrymandering as it had been practiced under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional.
Before the start of the meeting, committee chairman State Senator Dean Kirby (R) informed the crowd that his committee will be responsible for redrawing lines for congressional, state senate and state house districts. Judicial lines, however, will be the responsibility of the Senate Judiciary A Committee and House Judiciary B Committee.
Even still, Kirby said the lawmakers present during Tuesday’s meeting were there to listen to opinions on the potential for redistricting lines across all. He added that the legislative committee does not deal with electoral districting pertaining to local offices such as boards of aldermen, city councils and boards of supervisors, as those are locally decide.
Lone Supporter
The one person who spoke in support of using race neutral methods to redraw the maps was Warren County Republican Committee Chair James P. McKenny.
He reminded those in attendance that Mississippi’s Second Congressional District was created by a panel of three federal judges back in 1982, determining that the state needed at least one minority-majority district.
After its creation in 1983, McKenny said the district grew from encompassing 22 counties to now covering all or part of 30 counties. He attributed the change to the scarcity of economic opportunities, subsequent population loss, and the court’s order to keep that minority-majority in place.
McKenny said the current congressional lines prevent any other candidate from competing for the seat currently held by Congressman Bennie Thompson (D). Thompson has held the seat since 1993.
“That is a form of voter suppression,” McKenny told the state lawmakers. “The gerrymandered Mississippi Second District map was clearly conceived with race in mind and is illegal based on the Louisiana Callais decision.”
Vocal Opposition
Arguments against redistricting included questions as to why state leaders want to spend taxpayer money to redraw the maps when it will need to be done again in roughly five years after the 2030 Census. Others questioned the expense given the need to spend state funds to support education, food security, healthcare and infrastructure.
The opposition was mainly voiced by black residents who were in attendance at the hearing.
Former state legislator Walter Brown told the committee it is bad policy to conduct mid-decade redistricting. He said he could not recall a time since the 1800’s when it occurred in the state.
“I suspect if you took a secret vote in the House and the Senate, that an overwhelming majority, two thirds, would say, ‘I’d just rather not come down to Jackson or up to Jackson and legislate on something. I got other things to do and I like my district like it is,” Brown told the committee.
He asked the committee to wait until after the 2030 Census.
“These maps do not heal, they reopen wounds,” Joyce Mathis went on to say. “They do not unite, they divide. They do not reflect today’s Mississippi, they drag us backward into patterns of exclusion that our people have fought for generations to overcome.”
Current lawmakers not on the joint redistricting committee also spoke in opposition to the proposed effort to redraw district lines at this juncture.
House Minority Leader Robert Johnson (D) classified the effort for mid-decade redistricting as being about race, and asked the committee to think independently. He reminded the committee that the state’s population is nearly 40% black. As such, Johnson believes the state needs more minority representation in Congress and in the Legislature. He also pointed to the current Republican supermajority in Jackson.
“And you don’t hear perspective like you ought to hear it. You don’t have balance, that’s what you need to have,” Johnson said. “And that’s what I would suggest to the committee. We don’t need to come in here and redistrict at midterm, we need to know what the population looks like in 2030.”
State Rep. Jeffrey Harness (D) pointed to the lack of an order in the Callais decision that would mandate redistricting.
“Callais did not order Mississippi to redraw all of its congressional and legislative districts,” Harness said.
Harness also said the Legislature is only working to redistrict due to the demands of President Donald Trump (R).
“But Donald Trump does not live in Mississippi, we do,” Harness said. “Mississippi leaders were not elected to carry out the political wishes of any president, Republican or Democrat. We were elected to serve the people of Mississippi.”
Another speaker said the Legislature is acting in response to demands from the President, using sarcasm in her delivery before receiving a standing ovation from several attendees at the conclusion of her presentation.
“I’m here because I feel that it would be ‘fabulous’ for Mississippi to gerrymander its congressional and legislative districts even more than they are already are,” Kathleen O’Burn said. “Black Mississippians don’t deserve the same chance that I have to elect the officials of their choice. And we all know that the collective experience over the last two years that even stronger and more powerful rule by white lawmakers both in Washington and Jackson will be so great for Mississippi.”
Most of O’Burn’s speech focused on policies passed by President Trump. She believes those policies have had a negative impact on the state, including tariffs, imported beef, increased gas prices due to the war with Iran, and cuts to healthcare funding.
“What in God’s name have we become?” O’Burn asked. “This committee exists and this hearing is happening for one single reason. The vast majority of Mississippi’s white lawmakers are bending the knee to a tyrant.”
Harness, Johnson and several others in opposition of redistricting all suggested the committee shift gears to use any money potentially set aside for redistricting to instead focus on the needs of the residents in terms of education, medical care, food security and road and bridge maintenance.
The joint committee will continue its listening tour across Mississippi over the next few weeks with stops in Meridian, Hattiesburg, Biloxi and Jackson on the calendar.
