New Tuscaloosa redistricting map nears final approval from City Council

After five months, two public involvement meetings and more than 30 public comments, the Tuscaloosa City Council has advanced a new redistricting map for the city’s seven voting districts.

The new map maintains the status quo of majority Black and majority white districts. This means a continued current majority of Black residents in Districts 1, 2 and 7 and a near-equal split among Black and white residents in District 5.

Districts 3, 4 and 6 will remain made up of primarily white residents.

Because the vote was not unanimous on Feb. 15, the council will again take up the matter on Tuesday. It’s expected that the 5-2 split – with first term councilors Matthew Wilson, who represents District 1, and Cassius Lanier representing District 7 – as the two votes in opposition will remain.

District 2 Councilwoman Raevan Howard Williams, who is currently serving her second term, introduced the final map that was voted on by the council.

Despite calls by some, including speakers who again urged the council on Feb. 15 to craft a map the reflected Tuscaloosa’s current majority of minority residents, Howard Williams said the map she supported would ensure that at least three districts will still be represented by Black residents.

“Our city council started out with a 5-2 ratio – five white members and two Black members,” Howard Williams said of the first incarnations of the district form of city government that was adopted in the 1980s. “Several years ago, this was changed and we now have three African-American members.

“In my opinion, if we vote for a map with the numbers I just discussed, this map will not provide a clear path for an African-American and we will likely return to the original makeup of five whites and two Blacks.”

Re-dividing the council’s seven voting districts for City Council and Board of Education elections is required after the completion of each decennial U.S. Census.

After the 2020 Census, the City Council was tasked with dividing this updated population of 99,598 seven relatively equal ways.

According to the Census, 48,465 white residents call Tuscaloosa home, while the remaining 51,113 residents identify as Black or “other.”

This means Tuscaloosa is now a city made up primarily of minorities, a fact that a grassroots group of activists and the local chapter of the NAACP sought to have reflected in the new district map.

More: Local group, NAACP pitch racially-inclusive redistricting plan for Tuscaloosa

“We are a minority-majority city,” said Mike Altman, organizer of the community action group Tuscaloosa Action. “That doesn’t show up in our representation on City Council, however, because two of our districts are racially gerrymandered and a number of the districts are racially packed.”

Altman and Tuscaloosa Action, which formed last year over concerns of inmate treatment at the Tuscaloosa County Jail during the COVID-19 outbreak, joined with the Tuscaloosa branch of the NAACP and urged the City Council to make to adopt a map that, they believe, better reflects the racial make-up of the city.

Wilson said his “challenge” for supporting the map was different than that of Howard Williams’ before casting his vote against it.

“I’ve done due diligence in speaking to key culture bearers in my district concerning the redistricting alignment,” Wilson said, “and my focus has been on information, education and implementation, meaning that I’ve asked several times for us to meet as a council together to collaborate as one so that we all can understand the different lines and hows and whys and why nots and, therefore, tonight, I will not be supporting the redistricting alignment map.”

Veteran councilor and Council President Kip Tyner said he appreciated the council’s efforts since October, when the redistricting process began, and believed his fellow councilors were ready to move on.

“This is a council I’ve been very proud of. For five months, I know each one of us has taken this very seriously and talked to more people than you can imagine,” said Tyner, currently serving his seventh term, before the Feb. 15 vote. “I felt like, after polling all council members, that they were ready to vote and vote tonight.”

And Councilor Lee Busby, who has represented District 4 since a special election in 2019, said he appreciated the comments and suggestions from the public.

“I could not be prouder of us in wrestling with this. I couldn’t be prouder of the way this group has dealt with the process,” Busby said. “Because someone may not do what you want them to do does not mean they didn’t listen. It may mean that you have multiple, other dimensions involved and that you’re struggling conscientiously to get the right answer.”

Councilman Norman Crow, in his first term representing District 3, agreed.

“I have had multiple conversations with a lot of people in and out of my district. This is a serious decision. It’s also something I believe we all have taken seriously,” Crow said. “This is a part of our job that we were elected to do and to make the best decision based on the information that we all have.

“That doesn’t mean we’re all going to agree on what that final outcome is, but I – for one – have done my best to make the best possible decision on this, and I think we all take that seriously.”

Reach Jason Morton at jason.morton@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: New Tuscaloosa redistricting map nears final approval