ABSTRACT

Voting activists emphasized that despite black successes in the districts that Reynolds had fashioned for the 1982 elections, the number of elected black officials remained quite low in comparison with the total black population. In a state that was 22.4 percent black, the thirteen blacks in the General Assembly amounted to only 7.6 percent of the total number of state legislators. North Carolina promptly complied with the order of the court. The state disassembled the seven at-large districts and created thirty-one smaller districts with one legislator elected from each. With something approaching the maximum feasible representation already accomplished in the North Carolina state legislature, voting activists turned their attention to other offices. In Alabama, Republican strength almost doubled after legislative districts were redrawn in 1983. The Reynolds plan helped blacks to increase their numbers in the state legislature from six to thirteen in 1982.