City Of Tuscaloosa Redistricting Public Meeting Set For Wednesday

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The City of Tuscaloosa on Wednesday will hold the first of two public meetings geared toward soliciting community feedback in the process of redrawing council district lines following the 2020 Census.

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The first meeting will be at 9 a.m. at Tuscaloosa City Hall. A second meeting will be held in the evening next Wednesday, Feb. 9.

University of Alabama professor and local activist Mike Altman — of the group Tuscaloosa Action — is joined by other groups, such as the Tuscaloosa branches of the NAACP and Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in calling for city officials to reconsider the district maps of its own design.

"The important thing about redistricting is that it fairly represent the growth and population of the city," Altman told Patch on Tuesday. "The maps proposed by the City Council and mayor don’t do that. We are a majority non-white city and there should be four Black majority districts. The proposed maps, with three Black majority districts, are unequal, racially gerrymandered, and violate federal voting rights law."

Altman then said the groups plan to present their map design during the meeting on Wednesday, in addition to still promoting a petition that had gained 101 signatures by Tuesday morning.

Click here to see the community-drawn map sponsored by Tuscaloosa Action.

"The racially gerrymandered map not only suppresses Black voters by limiting Black majorities to three districts, it also limits the amount of funds Black communities have access to from the City Council," the petition argues. "All of the Black residents packed into District 7 have to share the funds allocated to their district. If these Black residents were properly distributed between District 7 and District 6, Black communities would have access to the district funds of both of those districts."

As Patch previously reported, the Tuscaloosa City Council on Jan. 12 tabled a vote on the proposed maps, with the goal of allowing more time and opportunity to gather public input.

At present, there are two maps being considered by the city apart from the one designed by independent community members. In January, Council President Kip Tyner pointed out that five of the city's seven council districts would be exactly the same with both maps. One map, if approved, would see certain historic neighborhoods kept in District 1, while the alternative would put them back in District 4.

Click here to view the current proposals by the City of Tuscaloosa and follow Tuscaloosa Patch for more from the public hearings.

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