Mississippi Senate Approves New Map to Boost Black Voting Power

[Tactical Peek]

3. An Ole Miss student got that ball rolling, impressive stuff.

How a college student exposed racial gerrymandering, prompted a lawsuit and forced Mississippi to redraw a voting district

By Adam Ganucheau

OXFORD — Late one night in May 2017, John Chappell, then a sophomore at the University of Mississippi, pulled out his laptop to research a hypothesis.

Chappell, an Albuquerque native, had just finished reading several books on voting rights and found a map of the legislative districts in his adopted home state. One district in particular stood out to him: Senate District 22, a section of the state zigzagging 120 miles southward from the Delta fields to the affluent Jackson suburbs.

He began writing down the individual voting precincts in the district and noting their racial demographics. He looked at similar demographics of precincts in neighboring districts. When he read the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which required states like Mississippi with a history of race-based voting discrimination to get approval to change voting laws, he knew he was onto something.

more
https://mississippitoday.org/2019/03/27/how-a-college-student-exposed-racial-gerrymandering-prompted-a-lawsuit-and-forced-mississippi-to-redraw-a-voting-district/?fbclid=IwAR1N5jtGWPwRCseG25c5b4gXlrWi2u1UIjou4IesSuyDbabd4NUaGQLs188