Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus agrees with recent court ruling adding a minority-majority seat for the state
Published 6:55 am Wednesday, June 8, 2022
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus (LLBC) agrees with and acknowledges the recent court ruling of redrawing the district maps to add a minority-majority seat for the state of Louisiana. Adding a minority-majority seat will allow for fair and equal representation that will reflect the growing diversity of the state of Louisiana and the various districts.
Throughout the year, members of the Black Caucus have traveled throughout the state conducting roadshows and meeting with various organizations and groups of people to see what their needs were in terms of access, voting, and representation for their perspective districts. Based on the information gathered from the roadshows and collected data from the 2020 census, it was vitally imperative that creating a minority-majority seat will allow voters to elect a candidate of their choice especially because African Americans make up approximately one-third of the population.
Vice Chairwoman Candace N. Newell stated, “As a caucus that fights for the rights of the underrepresented in particular African Americans – it is extremely important that everyone has fair and equal representation based on their population sizes through the redistricting process and the redrawing of the congressional maps. Until this happens there will continue to be inequities that exist within the governing bodies throughout communities on the local, state, and federal levels. Today, we definitely count the court’s ruling as a step in the right direction for the people of Louisiana.”
In addition, the LLBC would like to acknowledge and thank the Legal Defense Fund and many others for their tireless work and advocacy on the topic of fair redistricting maps, in particular, Jared Evans and Torri Wagner.
###
Established in 1977, the primary purpose of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus is to raise the quality of life for those underrepresented, the indigent, and working people through legislation, education, and economic development.
