Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    • Home
    • About Us
    • Digital Subscription
    • Advertisement
    • Contact Us
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    The Tennessee TribuneThe Tennessee Tribune
    Advertise With Us
    • Home
      • COVID-19 Resource Center
        • Dr. Henry Louis Gates’ PSA Radio
      • Featured
    • News
      • State
      • Local
      • National/International News
      • Global
      • Business
        • Commentary
        • Finance
        • Local Business
      • Investigative Stories
        • Affordable Housing
        • DCS Investigation
        • Gentrification
    • Editorial
      • National Politics
      • Local News
      • Local Editorial
      • Political Editorial
      • Editorial Cartoons
      • Cycle of Shame
    • Community
      • History
      • Tennessee
        • Chattanooga
        • Clarksville
        • Knoxville
        • Memphis
      • Public Notices
      • Women
        • Let’s Talk with Ms. June
    • Education
      • College
        • American Baptist College
        • Belmont University
        • Fisk
        • HBCU
        • Meharry
        • MTSU
        • University of Tennessee
        • TSU
        • Vanderbilt
      • Elementary
      • High School
    • Lifestyle
      • Art
      • Auto
      • Tribune Travel
      • Entertainment
        • 5 Questions With
        • Books
        • Events
        • Film Review
        • Local Entertainment
      • Family
      • Food
        • Drinks
      • Health & Wellness
      • Home & Garden
      • Featured Books
    • Religion
      • National Religion
      • Local Religion
      • Obituaries
        • National Obituaries
        • Local Obituaries
      • Faith Commentary
    • Sports
      • MLB
        • Sounds
      • NBA
      • NCAA
      • NFL
        • Predators
        • Titans
      • NHL
      • Other Sports
      • Golf
      • Professional Sports
      • Sports Commentary
      • Metro Sports
    • Media
      • Video
      • Photo Galleries
      • Take 10
      • Trending With The Tribune
    • Classified
    • Obituaries
      • Local Obituaries
      • National Obituaries
    The Tennessee TribuneThe Tennessee Tribune
    Breaking News

    Drawing Maps in Alabama

    Article submittedBy Article submittedSeptember 2, 2021No Comments5 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Telegram Pinterest Tumblr Reddit Email
    Evan Milligan is Executive Director of Alabama Forward, a coalition of groups working to promote democracy in Alabama.
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email
    Advertisement

    NASHVILLE, TN – Grassroots groups in Alabama are organizing people to participate in redistricting. The state’s Permanent Committee on Reapportionment—15 Republicans and 6 Democrats— is holding hearings around the state from September 1-16.

    “These hearings are held exclusively on weekdays and during working hours. The process is fundamentally inaccessible,“ said Felicia Scalzetti, an organizer and fellow of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

    Scalzetti said people can submit written testimony and can give public testimony by raising their hands virtually during the hearings when they are broadcast. The hearings can educate Alabamians about the process but only if they participate in it.

    “We want the folks that sit on that committee to hear directly from the community members to a degree they haven’t experienced before,“ said Evan Milligan. He is executive director of a network of non-profit organizations working to advance democracy in Alabama.

    “Let’s say that the committee already has in mind the map they want to vote in and that it’s a done deal, and whatever they say in those meetings is in one ear and out the other,” he said. Civil rights attorneys can assert legal claims later if it comes down to that.

    “It’s really important art to be able to show that there was a period when neighbors were saying ‘here is a concern of ours: here are maps we’ve drawn that can show you how to avoid cutting our community in half or drawing lines in a way that undermines the strength of our vote’. The more we can show that committee members were aware of that, the more you can later say that there was a deliberate decision on not to take that information into account,” Milligan said.

    Scalzetti and Alabama Election Protection Network (AEPN) are putting on a series of town hall meetings from 7-8PM on the days when the committee holds its hearings.

    “AEPN’s goal in terms of redistricting are to educate, connect, train, and engage as many Alabamians as possible. We want to facilitate local community mapping groups, especially those that represent communities of interest and groups of people who are not represented in the state legislature or on city councils,” Scalzetti said.

    Felicia Scalzetti is with Southern Coalition for Social Justice and a CROWD Fellow for the Alabama Election Protection Network.

    She wants to make sure everyone’s voice is heard and to see representation that actually reflects the state as it is.

    The reapportionment committee draws the district lines. They decide who votes in what district and, to a large extent, who will represent voters in each district for the next ten years. If Governor Kay Ivey vetoes the proposed maps then the committee would have to redraw them.

    Since 2010 maps in North Carolina have been redrawn 11 times because Republicans wouldn’t stop gerrymandering the state; judges kept rejecting the unfairly drawn maps. In a fair process, maps would only be drawn once very ten years after the U.S. Census data comes out.

    The 2020 census did not show major changes in Alabama’s demographics. The state is still majority white (69%) and its largest minority is African American (27%). Hispanics are 4.6%, Asians 1.55, and Native Americans .7%. Alabama neither gained nor lost representatives in Congress. Alabama had seven seats and will still have seven for the next ten years.

    According to Mark Hedin, a reporter with Ethnic Media Services, the GOP majority has been growing in each election since 2006. The senate flipped from a 23-12 Democratic majority to GOP majorities of 22-12 in 2010, 26-8 in 2014, and 27-8 in 2018. Over that same time period, the state assembly went from being Democrat-led, 62-43 in 2006, to GOP majorities of 66-39 in 2010, 72-33 in 2014 and 77-28 in 2018.

    The assembly has 18 women among its 105 members; the senate has five women among its 35 members. According to the Alabama League of Women Voters, 43% of Alabamians voted Democratic in 2018. Fifty-five percent voted Republican. Fairly drawn districts would send 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats to Congress.

    Alabama’s 7th Congressional District is the only one in the state represented by a Democrat, Terri Sewell, first elected in 2010. It spans the state’s so-called “black belt” and includes sections of Montgomery, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa.

    The 7th district overwhelmingly votes Democrat – by more than 70% in the past three presidential elections. The district is so “packed” that Sewell won with more than 70% support in 2010. Republicans think that’s a small price to pay for dominating Alabama’s political landscape.

    Milligan said that elected officials and the institutions they lead shape the quality of life people in Alabama experience.

    “It is easier for us to walk into many of the trade shows and buy and an automatic rifle or an extended clip with armor-piercing ammunition.  It’s easier to buy things like that than it is to obtain a COVID 19 test, to find mental health care, to obtain employment that pays a living wage, to find public transportation wherever we live in the state,” Milligan said.

    “Weighing in on redistricting is critical for our communities,” he said.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Article submitted

    Related Posts

    Judge blocks Trump’s asylum ban at southern border

    July 3, 2025

    The many ugly polls on Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’

    June 30, 2025

    NAACP Decision Deserves High Praise

    June 24, 2025

    From Opportunity To Abandonment: The Cruelty Of Ending Job Corps

    June 12, 2025

    Sen. Campbell marks disclosure of GOP’s ‘billion-dollar refund scheme’

    May 31, 2025

    Don’t let Trump sell off our public lands to Big Oil!

    May 21, 2025

    Comments are closed.

    Business

    Charlotte Knight Griffin Takes Office as TBA President-Elect

    June 30, 2025

    EXCLUSIVE OP-ED: President Joe Biden Commemorating Juneteenth

    June 19, 2025

    FUNdraising Good Times Report from Neighborhoods USA Conference in Jacksonville

    June 4, 2025
    1 2 3 … 384 Next
    Education
    Featured

    TSU Gospel Choir’s award-winning National Performance Now Streaming

    By adminJuly 13, 2025

    Tennessee State University’s award-winning New Direction Gospel Choir earned top honors in the inaugural Best…

    Fisk University Welcomes Antonio Barrino to Lead Band Program and Expand Music Education

    July 7, 2025

    Austin Peay’s MPH program receives $27K for childhood literacy initiative. Community LIFT Project to be implemented at Head Start centers this fall

    June 30, 2025

    TSU, State, reach agreement to reallocate $96M to school

    June 26, 2025
    The Tennessee Tribune
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    • About Us
    • Digital Subscription
    • Store
    • Advertise With Us
    • Contact
    © 2025 The Tennessee Tribune - Site Designed by No Regret Media.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Our Spring Sale Has Started

    You can see how this popup was set up in our step-by-step guide: https://wppopupmaker.com/guides/auto-opening-announcement-popups/