‘This is modern day segregation’: Federal judge considers blocking new city council maps

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Civil rights groups suing to block Jacksonville’s new city council and school board maps got their day before a federal judge Friday morning.

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The groups, which include the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Northside Coalition, pleaded their case for the judge to issue a preliminary injunction and order new maps be drawn, arguing the maps diminish the voting power of Black Jacksonville residents by packing Black voters into just four districts.

The districts at issue include Jacksonville’s 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th city council districts.

Each district has a Black voting population higher than 60%, which the groups suing argue limits the power of the Black vote in other parts of the city.

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When city council redrew district maps earlier this year, members claimed their intent was to make as few changes as possible.

The new map does look very similar, but ACLU attorney Nick Warren argued that’s exactly the problem.

“This is a practice of separating white from Black residents in the city in city council and school board districts for decades,” said Warren.

Jacksonville resident and voting rights activist Rosemary McCoy is among the plaintiffs suing to block the maps.

She argued the packing of Black voters into four districts diminishes Black voting power.

“This is modern day segregation. Plain and simple,” said McCoy.

The city argued in court Friday morning that the council did consider race when drawing the new maps, but it wasn’t the predominant reasoning for how the maps were ultimately drawn.

However, Warren argued that in the council members’ effort to leave the old maps unchanged, they intentionally or unintentionally perpetuated a 30-year history of racial gerrymandering in Duval County.

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“And regardless of how long this has been going on, I think we can all agree that it’s wrong now,” said Warren.

Jacksonville’s population is roughly 30% Black, and the four majority Black districts account for 28% of the non-at-large seats on city council.

We asked what the groups suing believed would be a fairer balance.

Northside Coalition Leader Ben Frazier gave us this response.

“Just because we’re 30%, we can’t have more than 30%? That doesn’t make no sense, does it? What we want to see is Black voters who have some impact on the entire body politic of Jacksonville,” said Frazier.

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Duval County’s supervisor of elections has indicated if new maps are ordered, they need to be in place by Dec. 16.

The city has argued there’s not enough time left to make that happen.

The judge didn’t make a ruling from the bench.

She said the parties will back in court on Sept. 29, but she could issue a ruling before that date.