VERY FEW CHANGES — A special session of the Louisiana Legislature has ended in Baton Rouge with new boundary lines drawn for Congress and the state House and Senate and other governmental bodies. However, the congressional districts passed by the Republican-dominated Legislature on Friday don't include a second majority-black district sought by voting rights activists who say U.S. Census figures support their cause. Senate Bill 5 by Senator Sharon Hewitt, Republican from -Slidell preserves two vertical northern Louisiana districts with Shreveport as the population hub of the 4th District and Monroe as the population hub of the 5th District. In short, the new six-district Congressional map keeps a similar configuration to the existing one with a single majority-Black district based in New Orleans and part of Baton Rouge. New Orleans Democratic Representative Royce Duplessis, who is Black had this to say during the final hours of the session Friday.
"Since Reconstruction, this state elects more white people to Congress in a year than we elect black people in a lifetime, and Black people make up a third of this state," Duplessis stated.
Duplessis was quoting comments made recently by former Congressman and current State Senator Democrat Cleo Fields of Louisiana’s 14th district who is one of only 5 African-Americans who have been elected to Congress since Reconstruction. Immediately after the House passed the bills and the session adjourned, the Legislative Black Caucus and House Democrats issued press releases asking Governor Edwards to Veto the Congressional map.
A court challenge is also expected from advocates who say the plans violate the federal Voting Rights Act in a state where about a third of the population is Black.
