"A GOP power grab shatters 30 years of political progress for Black voters in Galveston County"

STORYTELLING CATEGORY

The Texas Tribune
05/20/2022

The struggle for a seat at the table spanned generations for Black residents and political leaders in Galveston County, the coastal resort and spring break playground where news of Emancipation came late to Texas, on the day now honored as Juneteenth.

By 2022, Black residents had finally gained a substantive political foothold, able to meaningfully influence elections and put candidates they backed into office. Then the county's mostly white, Republican political heavyweights snatched away the prize. By redistricting a key county commissioner's precinct, they effectively diluted the impact of Black voters and retrenched white political control.

In her story “A GOP power grab shatters 30 years of political progress for Black voters in Galveston County,” Texas Tribune reporter Alexa Ura brings to ground the pernicious partisan tactic of gerrymandering political subdivisions. Even if the intent is not racist, the effect is.

MAIN LINK to content online

Submitted by Sewell Chan.