Wikipedia talk:Meetup/Nashville/Our Story Matters Editathon

Voting rights issues

I have worked separately on articles about election of the city councils or commissions of Memphis, Nashville, Clarksville, Knoxville, etc., having learned that they long had small city commissions elected at-large. This meant that in practice, significant minorities in each city were unable to elect candidates of their choice to city government. Federal lawsuits were filed in some cities as early as 1977 under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 against this structure, as it diluted votes of the minority. Settlements were made in 1989-1990 in several cities, establishing larger city commissions/councils, often with election of members from single-member districts that enabled compact minorities to elect candidates of their choice. I have added this content to the city articles in the history/government sections. It is important to see the continuing issues related to civil rights and electoral politics, particularly at the local level, where many people get their start in politics. Parkwells (talk) 15:51, 6 March 2015 (UTC)