In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision — which grants states permission to erase majority-minority congressional districts and with it, any trace of Black political power — much attention has been directed toward the Tennessee GOP’s gerrymander that sliced majority-Black Memphis three ways to wipe out the state’s lone Democratic district.
And for good reason. This racist, mid-decade redistricting is gerrymandering in its worst form. Allowing such a blatantly anti-democratic practice to reach any level of normalcy or legality contributes to a political system growing more authoritarian by the day.
But the consequences of Callais reach far beyond the federal level or even state House and Senate districts. The drawing of local maps — for representation on the Chattanooga City Council, the Hamilton County Commission and the county’s Board of Education — now operates under a system with the potential for Black disenfranchisement.
This isn’t to say this poses an immediate problem. In all likelihood, as multiple local officials told this paper, current boundaries for city and county districts will stay in place for the foreseeable future.