DATELINE: THE SOUTH - News and trends
SPECIAL REPORT - Redistricting battles shape up across the South
INSTITUTE INDEX - Justice for the South's forced-sterilization victims? DATELINE: THE SOUTH - News and trends SUPREME COURT UNANIMOUSLY REJECTS CLIMATE LAWSUIT AGAINST POWER COMPANIES: The justices block a nuisance lawsuit that targeted major Southern polluters, ruling that it's up to the EPA -- not the courts -- to curb greenhouse gas emissions. (6/21/2011) VOICES: THE SOUTHERN FRONT IN THE CORPORATE WAR ON WORKERS: Recent developments across the South set up conditions for the same kind of abuses that haunted the region's past. (6/23/2011) SMOKING OUT THE TOBACCO BARONS: After years of pressure, North Carolina cigarette manufacturer Reynolds American has agreed to meet with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee to discuss conditions for tobacco pickers. (6/21/2011) DECADES AFTER KING'S ASSASSINATION, MEMPHIS REIGNITES LABOR STRUGGLE:The sanitation workers' union that the civil rights leader was supporting when he was assassinated in 1968 now confronts a fight over privatization. (6/20/2011) AS SAFETY WORRIES GROW FOR EXISTING U.S. NUCLEAR FLEET, PROPOSED NEW REACTOR DESIGN FACES MOUNTING PROBLEMS: As an Associated Press investigation finds serious safety issues at aging U.S. reactors, official approval for a new type of reactor planned for sites across the Southeast faces a legal challenge over safety concerns. (6/22/2011) 50 YEARS LATER, YOUTH AND ELDERS KEEP THE SPIRIT OF THE FREEDOM RIDES ALIVE: A recent screening in New Orleans of a new documentary about the Freedom Rides of 1961 brought to life the struggles of youth at the forefront of the civil rights movement for a new generation of activists. (6/20/2011) SPECIAL REPORT - Drawing the lines: Redistricting battles shape up across the South By Chris Kromm  Across the South, state legislatures have rolled out their plans for redrawing political lines -- plans that could be key to shaping upcoming elections in 2011 and 2012.
The new Southern plans are being closely followed because this is the first time in history that redistricting has happened under the watch of a Democratic-controlled Department of Justice, which is required to "pre-clear" or approve plans in nine Southern states covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.* Most states have held off on devising plans for U.S. Congress, instead focusing on new lines for their state legislatures. The need for DOJ approval has led the largely Republican-controlled states to propose plans which both optimize GOP strength and deflect costly litigation over minority voting rights. Here's a quick run-down on what's happening in a few key states: FLORIDA: A huge presidential battleground is shaping up to be one of the most interesting redistricting war zones as well. Last fall, 63% of voters approved a ballot measure that limits the amount of partisan gerrymandering that can be done by state legislators. But Republicans brought a lawsuit -- which was joined by African-American Democrat Corrine Brown of north Florida -- which challenges the law. If it stands, Democrats as a whole could gain; if it falls, Republicans and Rep. Brown would. The state is also holding hearings on proposed new lines for the state legislature.
LOUISIANA: The DOJ has pre-cleared a plan which increases the number of majority African-American districts from 27 to 29 out of 105 seats. Republicans succeeded in defeating a proposal to create a 30th majority-black district, but there still could be a lawsuit. If not, these lines will hold for the state's 2011 election cycle and beyond. VIRGINIA: Another state with big 2011 contests -- and also a projected 2012 presidential battleground -- has also received DOJ approval for redistricting 2.0; the first plan was vetoed by Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, who objected to what he saw as "partisan gerrymandering" by Democrats in the state senate. No news of litigation yet. NORTH CAROLINA: In another key 2012 state, Republicans have revealed 22% of the new state maps, which significantly boost majority-black districts. But in the process, they've so diluted the other districts that elections watchdog Democracy North Carolina calls it a vestige of "separate and equal": To achieve more districts where African-American adults are a majority, the Republican map makers have corralled black voters into often oddly shaped areas and reduced the number of districts where they can play a pivotal role in electing candidates who support their agenda. This strategy follows the old "separate but equal" philosophy used to justify segregation; it gives the appearance of promoting black interests but actually undermines the ability of black voters to maximize their impact in state politics through a combination of majority-minority and multi-racial coalition districts. TEXAS: The site of the Great Redistricting Brawl of 2003 is shaping up for another battle. This week, the Republican-led senate voted 19-12 along party lines to send a plan to GOP Gov. Rick Perry for signing. Republicans drew a hard line in opposing the creation of Democratic-friendly districts in places like Tarrant County. The result, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram? "Court challenges are inevitable." SOUTH CAROLINA: This week the state House approved not just new state legislative districts -- which reflect the state's population shift to the coast -- but also a map for new Congressional districts, including a new seat added after the 2010 Census. In a state that is 27.9% African-American, the GOP-controlled legislature could have created a new majority-black Congressional district, but didn't. The likely result? Lawsuit. South Dilutes Democratic Gains What will happen when the other Southern states do tackle Congressional redistricting? National experts like The Cook Political Report and Stuart Rothenberg have made projections, and they conclude the South will emerge as a major counterweight to Democratic gains in other parts of the country. In Georgia, for example, they expect Democrats will lose one Congressional seat and Republicans will gain two, according to Cook. In North Carolina, Dems lose two to three districts, with Republicans gaining the same amount. (Fast-growing Florida and Texas will be a wash, with both parties gaining equally.) So even though California and Illinois will likely see up to eight new Democratic-friendly districts, those will be offset by the GOP's gains in the South. Due to the rightward pull of Republican-controlled Southern legislatures, the net overall gains for Democrats nationally may only amount to two seats. The South strikes again. * Five states (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas) are covered completely. All but one county is covered in Georgia and all but 11 counties in Virginia. 40 counties are covered in North Carolina and five in Florida. (To comment on this story, click here.) INSTITUTE INDEX - Justice for the South's forced-sterilization victims?  Year in which Sir Francis Galton founded the now-discredited science of eugenics to improve the human population through selective reproduction: 1883
Number of U.S. states that adopted eugenics laws in the early 1900s targeting for compulsory sterilization people deemed unfit to bear children: 32 Year in which the first U.S. state, Indiana, enacted a compulsory sterilization law: 1907 Year in which Georgia passed a eugenics law, the last state to do so: 1937 
Estimated number of U.S. residents sterilized as a result of such laws: 80,000 Of the 13 Southern states, number that had active sterilization programs: 8* Year in which the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed such programs in its Buck v. Bell decision upholding Virginia's sterilization law, reasoning that "the principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes": 1927 Year in which North Carolina first adopted a compulsory sterilization law, though it was not implemented: 1919 Year in which North Carolina adopted a compulsory sterilization law that was implemented: 1929 Year in which the N.C. Supreme Court ruled that the state's sterilization law was unconstitutional, leading the General Assembly to adopted a new one modeled on Virginia's Supreme Court-approved version: 1933 Year in which Germany's Nazi government passed its own eugenics law, which it promoted with a poster that showed the flags of the U.S. and other countries with such laws over the caption, "We do not stand alone": 1933 Year in which a North Carolina hosiery magnate joined forces with a Proctor & Gamble heir to form the Human Betterment League, which launched a publicity campaign to promote sterilization out of concern that welfare recipients and the mentally ill were a drain on taxpayers: 1947 Decades in which North Carolina's sterilization program peaked, long after most other states had abandoned such efforts due to their resemblance to Nazi policy: 1950s and 1960s Year in which civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer delivered a speech in Washington, D.C. in which she decried forced sterilization of African Americans in her home state of Mississippi: 1965 Year in which the federal government began paying for forced sterilizations through the Medicaid program: 1969 Year in which the Southern Poverty Law Center sued the federal government over sterilization abuses: 1973 Year in which North Carolina ended its sterilization program: 1974 Estimated number of North Carolinians sterilized as part of that program: 7,600 Percent of North Carolina's sterilization victims who were women: about 85 Overall percent of North Carolina's sterilization victims who were black: 39 Percent of North Carolina's sterilization victims who were black during the 1960s: 60 Age of the North Carolina eugenics program's youngest victim, a boy who was castrated: 10 Number of North Carolina sterilization victims who are still alive today: nearly 3,000 Date on which North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) established a Eugenics Task Force to look at compensating the state's sterilization victims: 3/8/2011 Date on which the task force held a listening session for victims of the state's forced-sterilization efforts: 6/22/2011 Age of Elaine Riddick, who spoke at the listening session, when she was sterilized in 1968 after being raped, getting pregnant and giving birth to the child: 13 Rank of North Carolina among the top states in terms of sterilizations performed: 3 Rank of Virginia: 2 Rank of California: 1 Year in which Virginia became the first state to apologize for its sterilization program, on the 75th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Buck v. Bell decision: 2002 Number of states that have issued official apologies for involuntary sterilizations: 7 Number of states besides North Carolina that have set up a process to compensate individual victims: 0 Amount of compensation proposed by North Carolina, which victims say is inadequate:$20,000 * The Southern states with such programs were AL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, VA and WV; those that did not have them were AR, FL, KY, TN and TX. (Click on figure to go to source. To comment on this index, click here. Photo of 1971 anti-sterilization protest from the Southern Conference Educational Fund in Louisville, Ky. via the Independent Weekly.)
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