Arguments Kick Off in Our Illinois Redistricting Lawsuit

Last week, our attorneys went to federal court to challenge Illinois lawmakers who unlawfully cracked apart the Black community of the East St. Louis area during redistricting. Representing a group of Black-led community organizations, we submitted map revisions to a three-judge panel who will decide whether or not to throw out the maps. Alongside our incredible co-counsel at Cooley LLP and the national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, we are asking the judges to revise the redistricting plan in order to protect voters’ rights.

During the court hearing, Senior Counsel Ami Gandhi of Chicago Lawyers’ Committee spoke about the history of East St. Louis and the importance of Black voter power in the community:

“You know, our clients, the NAACP and UCCRO plaintiffs are here in this courtroom, in the lobby talking to media, listening in from downstate over the phone and the dial-in, and our clients, the plaintiffs, are non-partisan centered community organizations, who have the right to elect the candidates of their choice and who look at redistricting as a ten-year plan for equitable investment in their community. The East St. Louis area that's the subject of this particular complaint and case has a unique history that has a bearing on Black political participation. The East St. Louis area is more like the southern United States than it is like Chicago or Cook County, especially when it comes to the history of race and racism […]

Let me give a comparison. Following Chicago's 1919 race riot, the Black community in Chicago was able to gain some ability to leverage the city's political machine to elect a succession of Black aldermen and congressmen in the half century following. It's not the same for the racial history and strife in East St. Louis. After the devastating and fatal 1917 race riot in East St. Louis, the Black community there did not enjoy that kind of rebound. For decades, the Black community in the East St. Louis area was unable to send elected Black representatives to the city council, the Illinois state legislature or the halls of congress. Segregation, white supremacy, Klan presence, and machine politics constrained Black electoral success and activism there.

In 1975, finally, house district 114 elected a Black representative for the first time and a Black person has held the office ever since. House district 114 is the only Illinois house district in southern Illinois with a Black representative. The East St. Louis area remained segregated well after that became a violation of the Illinois law, with the Black community struggling to once again gain a foothold […]

This is not by any means a community to be just pitied; I don't mean to suggest that. It's a community with a unique and haunting story, but a community that speaks out and wants to keep being able to speak out when it comes to civic engagement and political self-determination […]

It's no surprise that Black community organizations insist that a district here with 33 percent Black voting-age population is unjust and will not sufficiently serve the community's needs over the next 10 years. It will prevent them from electing the candidate of their choice […]

Community members including President Haley, who is the president of the Illinois State Conference of the NAACP, one of the plaintiffs here, also Dr. Kareem Mateen, highlight in their declarations in the record how these white rural communities are not aligned with the East St. Louis area. One of these community members is declarant veteran Dr. Jones III, an army veteran, a pastor and community leader. He pastors at a church in East St. Louis and he lives in Belleville. He was drawn out of house district 114 through SB 927. He is speaking out against the dilution of his community's votes.

This is not just about numbers. This is not just about partisan politics. We represent nonpartisan organizations. This is about people. This is about people who have the right for their votes to count despite pretenses about the partisan reasons that their votes were diluted.”

>> Read more in the Cook County Record and the Chicago Tribune