NAACP Gerrymandering: “How South Carolina Attempted to “Bleach” Charleston and the Attorneys Fighting to Stop It — All the Way to the Supreme Court.”
In Charleston, South Carolina, colorful low country cottages and southern plantation homes stand tall and proud on palm tree-lined cobblestone streets. The peninsula of Charleston is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, beckoning water sports enthusiasts, golfers, and vacationers looking to relax in luxury resorts and homes. But hidden just underneath the surface of these glimmering indulgences is a deeply troublesome history: Charleston was once North America’s largest trans-Atlantic slave trade port, as 150,000-200,000 trafficked Africans arrived in the United States through Charleston Harbor from 1670 until the trans-Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in 1808. Charleston, and the entire state of South Carolina, profited from the subjugation of Black communities in myriad ways — from slavery to Jim Crow, to redlining and employment discrimination, to the denial of the right to vote building the riches of the state off the backs of Black men and women while denying them basic civil and human rights for generations. Until 2015, the Confederate flag flew over the State Capitol in a place of pride, where it had flown for 54 years. This history is what undergirds the infrastructure of the state.
“It is a history that also provides necessary context for the case for which Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Senior Counsel Leah Aden recently presented oral argument at the United States Supreme Court on Oct. 11, 2023. Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP epitomizes how South Carolina has sought to undermine Black political power through the redistricting process — and how LDF has worked tirelessly to guard against this incursion. We’ll take a deeper dive into how oral argument day unfolded, but first, here’s some brief background about LDF’s work to fight against racial discrimination in voting in South Carolina — a long road ultimately leading to the Supreme Court.”
https://www.naacpldf.org/alexander-v-sc-naacp-supreme-court-gerrymandering/
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