The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus and civil rights icon Joseph Lowery filed a lawsuit March 28 to dissolve the newly created cities of Milton, Johns Creek, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody and Chattahoochee Hills, as well as the potential Milton County, claiming they violate the rights of minorities within their districts.
"By their creation, voting strength of African Americans within these cities has been diluted beyond the maximum Constitutional level. This has effectively taken the right to vote away from these African Americans," reads a statement on the group's website, www.justiceingeorgia.org.
The suit makes a point that few minorities serve as elected officials in any of the new municipalities, adding, "Minorities inside of each newly created [Municipal Voting District] lose their elected leadership, and no longer enjoy the voting rights held prior to the creation of the [Municipal Voting Districts]."
That "elected leadership" refers to the predominately black county commissioners of Fulton and DeKalb. The lawsuit's argument claims that the newly formed cities concentrated power in the hands of the large white populations within the cities.
Johns Creek council member Karen Richardson, who is African-American, is the only non-white elected official in the new cities.
North Fulton legislators downplayed the lawsuit's merits.
"If it wasn't going to waste taxpayers' money, I'd say it's laughable," said state Sen. John Albers (R- 56). "There is no basis for the lawsuit."
He pointed out that the most recent census shows the ethnic makeup of the new cities has increased in diversity, not decreased, since forming. The cities of Milton and Johns Creek both have almost a 10 percent black population, while Sandy Springs has 20 percent. Chattahoochee Hills is almost a third black. The cities have sizable Asian and Hispanic populations as well.
Mayors of the new cities were less outspoken than Albers.
Milton Mayor Joe Lockwood said his city is looking at the lawsuit and are taking the allegations seriously.
"The city continues to study the lawsuit," Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker said. His city will keep track of the progress of the lawsuit to see if there is any action that needs to be taken. Bodker did not speculate on the lawsuit in question but said if the city needs to defend its charter and the residents' right to self-governance, it will.
The lawsuit also calls out the possible creation of Milton County as further detrimental to the rights of minorities in North Fulton.
The arguments of the lawsuit rely on the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which forbids Southern states with a history of discrimination from redistricting without Justice Department approval. Lowery alleges that, by creating the new cities, the state violated the Voting Rights Act and did not allow the rest of the county to vote on the issue. Only residents in the area that would become cities were allowed to vote on the issue. Albers said the state received Justice Department clearance before elections were held to form the cities.
Lowery made similar allegations late last year against Sandy Springs and their effort to opt out of the restrictive VRA, which again required approval of the Justice Department.
Several voters of Johns Creek and Dunwoody were also named as plaintiffs in the case. They could not be reached for comment by our deadline.
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 9:08 AM
