But Its Commission Government, Elected At-Large, May Be Ending : One Alabama City a Holdout on Voting Rights

MOBILE, Ala. —  Only one Alabama city still clings to a city commission form of government elected at-large, a system once commonplace but now mostly dismantled in what one scholar calls the South’s “Second Reconstruction.”

But change may come to the holdout, Muscle Shoals. A federal judge is considering whether to order the creation of seven voting districts that could bring the first black into office in the city, which is about 10% black.

Similar rulings swept the state because of litigation prompted by the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The major victim of the lawsuits was the at-large commission form of government, viewed as a bastion of white political power because blacks seeking representation from their areas were outvoted by the white majority.

There still are some at-large elected councils, but only one such city commission. County commissions and school boards did not escape restructuring, either. Of the 67 county commissions, only a handful are elected at-large, most in northern Alabama where there are fewer blacks. The pattern applies to the 67 county school boards and the three city systems--Huntsville, Jacksonville and Scottsboro--that elect their boards. The other 62 boards are appointed.

“It amounts to a Second Reconstruction,” said Chandler Davidson, a political sociologist at Rice University, referring to the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War. Davidson testified in many federal hearings on lawsuits challenging the at-large method of electing city officials in many cities.

One of the most far-reaching lawsuits stemming from the Voting Rights Act was filed in the late 1970s against Mobile, which Davidson ranked among the most segregated cities in the country in terms of jobs, education, housing and politics.

Bolden vs. City of Mobile paved the way for a 1982 amendment to the Voting Rights Act eliminating the need to prove intentional discrimination in efforts to change at-large election systems that perpetuated white dominance. No longer could all-white governments defend at-large election systems by saying simply that the intent of the system had nothing to do with racial discrimination.

Mobile changed from a city commission, elected citywide, to a mayor and a council chosen from seven districts. Three blacks were elected.

The 1982 amendment ended cities’ resistance to racial change. And it did not go unnoticed that Mobile’s legal bill exceeded $1 million. Soon, the financial burden and the increasing likelihood of courtroom defeat moved scores of local governments to change.

The commission form of government is “history,” said Tuscaloosa City Atty. Bob Ennis. “You can no longer have a form of government that is not constantly aware of how cities operate on a daily basis.” Tuscaloosa settled a voting rights lawsuit quickly six years ago, switching to a mayor and council.

“We’re constantly aware of the Voting Rights Act every time there’s an annexation, redistricting or substantive change,” Ennis said.

There are 440 cities in the state, with an average of five council districts each. About 410 council members are black, as are 31 mayors, said the Alabama Democratic Conference, a black political caucus. There were 12 black mayors and 94 black council members in 1979.

However, changes in City Hall do not necessarily reflect changed cities.

“If you travel across the Black Belt now, what you will find, more often than not, is a courthouse controlled by blacks surrounded by white merchants who control everything else and they are hardly speaking,” said Selma lawyer J. L. Chestnut, a veteran of change-of-government lawsuits.

“So we have to take into consideration questions beyond the mere political consequences of an election arrangement,” Chestnut said.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson is considering a lawsuit that could lead to change for a handful of cities that still have at-large elections, including Muscle Shoals, which has never had a black on its three-member city commission. The lawsuit began with about 150 cities as defendants, but more than half have made changes that satisfied the courts and black voters who filed it.

Some “Black Belt” cities in western Alabama were forced to change through state legislation. Each has unique circumstances, and most officials report political acceptance of choosing council members from districts.

Brundidge, a mostly black city of 3,300, last year gave up its commission in favor of a mayor-council system. “You have more input under this system, a good racial and income mix,” said Mayor James T. Ramage III, who is white.

Gadsden Mayor David Nolen believes that residents of his city of 47,000, which is 25% black, would return to a citywide system if given a choice. The mayor-council system adopted in 1986 because of a lawsuit has been typified by “bickering” between the mayor and council members, he said. There are two blacks on the seven-member council.

Some smaller cities remain unaffected, mainly because of their low percentage of blacks. In Arab, an all-white city of 6,600, City Atty. Dave Beuoy said the mayor and five council members are still elected at-large.

Such cities with few blacks, like Muscle Shoals, pose a delicate problem.

“Small municipalities are viewed by many whites as their last sanctuary, and if we’re going to have viable working relationships across racial lines, we have to be careful how we go about these things,” Chestnut said.

Birmingham voted out the city commission in 1962, although the current nine-member City Council, now with a black majority, remains elected citywide. However, a federal judge is weighing a proposal to switch to election from districts--six black and three white--after a group of whites filed a reverse-discrimination lawsuit claiming that the white vote was diluted by citywide elections.

Birmingham is awaiting a ruling from U.S. District Judge Robert Propst before proceeding with October elections, said City Atty. Jim Baker. “This is the only case filed by whites I know of.”