WASHINGTON DC — Rep. Corrine Brown testified Thursday during the Florida Legislature's special session to reiterate her opposition to the reconfiguration of Congressional District 5.
Brown made the following statement:
"Yesterday, I filed a Federal lawsuit to appeal the state of Florida's Supreme Court Redistricting decision. The goal of the lawsuit is to keep Congressional District 5 as is, in accordance with the mandates of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. I strongly believe that the decision by the Florida Supreme Court to order a redraw of the state's congressional map is a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, since the VRA explicitly prohibits any electoral practice that ‘results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen…to vote on account of race or color.’
Beyond a doubt, the newly configured base map will bring about minority vote dilution and hamper the ability of the state's minority residents to elect a candidate of choice, since the base map entirely dilutes and disperses minority communities. Why does the Florida State Supreme Court insist upon punishing the constituents of Florida’s 5th congressional district?
Minority communities do not live in compact, cookie-cutter like neighborhoods, and excessive adherence to district “compactness,” while ignoring the maintenance of minority access districts, fragments them across the state, not allowing them to elect a representative of their choice.
And the reason why African Americans live in the areas of Congressional District 5 in which they do in the first place is a direct result of historical redlining, clearly exemplified by living patterns both here in the state of Florida and easily visible in other states as well. In fact, after Emancipation and the Civil War, the Black population of northeastern Florida moved along the St. Johns River, which extends from Jacksonville to just north of Orlando. Because the land was prone to flooding, it was only natural that the poorest Floridians, including freed slaves, would settle there. Segregated housing patterns, demanded by restrictive covenants and enforced by Florida courts, kept the African-American population together well into the mid-20th Century, which is the central reason why these communities are segregated into those residential patterns across the state.
Additionally, the mandate given to the Florida state legislature to convene a special session did not even contain a requirement to hold hearings statewide, which would have allowed Florida voters to voice their concerns and priorities regarding their preferences for federal representation. Beyond a doubt, it is particularly important for African American and Latino communities to be heard, whose representation and voting power will be severely impacted by redistricting.
For most of my adult life, there were no minority members of Congress elected from Florida, and few African-Americans elected to the Florida House and Senate. That changed in 1992 when I was elected to Congress together with Rep. Carrie Meek from Miami and Rep. Alcee Hastings from Ft. Lauderdale.
Yet to obtain this seat I had to file a lawsuit. I fought for four African American seats in the courts, and in the end, we reached a compromise and got three, again – based on the tenets of The Voting Rights Act. As a result of this lawsuit, in 1993, after nearly 130 years, the state of Florida had three African American federal representatives. And for the first time in many years, minority community members in the state were represented by people who truly understood them; who grew up in the same neighborhoods and attended the same churches and schools as they did.
District 5 in Florida and minority access districts across the nation cannot, and will not be eliminated, particularly after the hard fought civil rights gains we have made during the last 50 years. As a people, African Americans have fought too hard to get to where we are now, and we certainly are not taking any steps backwards."
WFTV
