The Impact of Redistricting on African-American Representation in the U.S. Congress and State Legislatures in the 1990s

This chapter reviews how the rounds of redistricting impacted African-American representation in Congress and state legislatures. The 1990s round of redistricting is the first to occur since Congress amended Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. As expected, the 1990s redistricting process led to significant gains in the number of African-American legislators and majority African-American districts. In 1990, 86 percent of the African Americans serving in the state legislature represented majority African-American districts. Redistricting in the 1990s has led to a significant increase in the number of African Americans elected to legislative office. For the first time since Reconstruction, African Americans are better represented in southern state legislatures than in state legislatures elsewhere in the country. The primary reason for the surge in African-American representation was the increase in the number of majority black districts drawn.