Collierville activists take on local voting laws
At-large model called ‘the legacy of racism’
When three Black men ran for Collierville aldermen positions in 2020, the outcome placed the town’s voting laws on Collierville Community Justice’s radar.
Two candidates — Harold Booker and William Boone — advanced to runoff elections, but went on to lose; Gregory Frazier narrowly lost to an incumbent.
Collierville Community Justice, a group of activists working to challenge systemic racism, had just put its foot in the door of local politics last summer after requesting the town remove a Confederate marker from the Town Square.
Members of the group argue the current voting system, an at-large model, washes away the voices of minority residents of Collierville.
At-large voting has become rare across the country during the last few decades, largely due to lawsuits against municipalities that practice it. The Collierville law allows all residents to vote for every seat during an election. Since the law does not require districts, none exist in Collierville.
This prevents minority groups from being represented in government. In Collierville’s case, where almost 73 per
cent of the population is White, people of color’s votes will be overpowered by the majority.
“Even if there’s a 70 percent majority, the minority should have some representation. But they don’t because they just don’t have a chance,” said Emily Fulmer, a board member of Collierville Community Justice and political science professor at the University of Memphis.
As of 2020, Collierville had 48,261 residents with minorities representing just more than 24 percent of the population. But, if you divide the town along Poplar Avenue, there is a more defined demographic split.
Census tract data shows that about 53 percent of the 14,345 residents in the area south of Poplar Avenue are minorities, with Black residents making up just under 64 percent (4,799 people) of that minority.
Collierville residents living north of Poplar Avenue reflect a completely different demographic. Only about 15 percent (4,960) of those residents are minorities, just under 31 percent of which are Black.
She does not blame the board of aldermen for the legislation, though. For her, it’s a legacy of ongoing, systemic racism and an artifact of the reconstruction era that took place after the Civil War.
“The way the rules are set up is not a mistake, they were designed that way when we had legal segregation in the town,” Fulmer said. “We’re not blaming any particular alderman or mayor who is currently or has recently served because they didn’t design the rules.”
At-large elections are dissolving nationwide
Fulmer and Collierville Community Justice are far from the first groups to question the legality of at-large voting systems. There have been numerous court cases that call the election method discriminatory and refer to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
There are 18 cases challenging at-large voting nationally and referencing Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act were brought before a U.S. District Court since the law was enacted in 1965 according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Catherine Meza is an attorney with the NAACP’S Legal Defense Fund. She has prosecuted a few cases involving atlarge voting in her time with the organization. According to Meza, the laws are not discriminatory at face value but become so when racially polarized voting takes place in a community.
“There may be racially polarized voting, where Black candidates have run in the past and the Black community generally votes for Black candidates,” Meza said. “So what ends up happening if there is racially polarized voting, because in an at-large system all voters vote for all open seats, the white majority will always block the community of color’s candidate of choice in what’s called vote dilution.”
Meza pointed out that although there are usually different remedies, the common change she sees is a switch to singlemember districts. That places the power to create districts in the hands of the Collierville local government.
The choice to not pursue litigation
Fulmer said she does not want Collierville Community Justice to enter a courtroom to see at-large voting disappear.
“We want the board of mayor and aldermen to understand why (at-large voting) is a problem. Not to take the blame for it, not to admit that they are racist or this town is racist, but to say, ‘We understand why that is a problem. You’re right, it needs to be changed,’” she said. “That’s a more healing process (than a lawsuit).”
Just because Fulmer wants to avoid litigation does not mean that she feels any less strongly about challenging the law that she calls a “legacy of racism.” She may not blame the town’s current political officials, but she wants them to feel the pressure and know they have the ability to change the law.
“We told the board of aldermen, ‘It’s not your fault, but you do have the power to change it. Now, if you refuse to change it, that is your fault.’”
Lucas Finton is a news intern at The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at lucas.finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @Lucasfinton.