To: Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials (GABEO)

Reapportionment or redistricting provides America's only claim to democratic principles in its form of government. Democracy, based on one-person-one-vote representation, implies direct election of those who make the decisions that affect our day-to-day existence; every vote counts. The rub in America is, Article 1 Section 2 of the United States Constitution: the Great Compromise, made sure democracy would not become America's form of government. A simple majority of founding fathers threw out the principle of equality espoused in the Declaration of Independence, i.e., "All men are created equal," to establish a republic that relegated Africans and their descendants to a slave status with the value of 3/5ths whites. This inequality or slavery is the reason America established the Electoral College. Inequality remained codified in the American socioeconomic and political system as "Jim Crow" segregation, even though the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments were supposed to make blacks equal to whites. Yet, neither of these amendments repealed Article 1 Section 2, and strict construction of the law keeps its economic arrangement intact.

Gov. Roy Barnes ferociously supported segregation. Like so many other white Georgians, the Confederacy is his honored heritage. These whites never relented in their desire to keep America committed to the 3/5ths Compromise and its Electoral College. As long as these are our decision-makers, blacks will not receive equal representation based on their numbers.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka established the standard for "due process" and "equal protection." It struck down Plessy v. Ferguson, "separate but equal." Now, we have the new standard for equal protection established under Bush v. Gore. Conscious blacks knew the 14^th Amendment and its 1965 Voting Rights Act were worthless even before the Florida debacle.

Coming out of segregation there were no blacks in the legislature. Whenever blacks gained enough votes to get a majority, whites changed the system or created overarching structures like at-large districts in DeKalb County, Georgia. Structures, such as these multi-member districts, give the simple white majority more representation by diluting black voting strength. As a Dixiecrat legislator, Barnes engineered many schemes that limited black representation. Now, Barnes is trying to bring back Dixiecrat multi-member districts, a trick for the stupid.

Scantily clad, Barnes' burlesque is the same Dixiecrat "Jim Crow" segregation scheme whites used years ago to keep blacks out of the state legislature. This time he promises, "multi-member districts will only be used to keep the 'Republican Party,' his former party, from controlling state government." Barnes has no respect for the intelligence of black elected officials or black people, if he thinks black Georgians trust him to look after our interest. We understand why he would doubt the intelligence of black elected officials. But, what makes him think black people trust the man who forced a flag bill down our throats that basically enshrined the Confederacy and brought the slave master, Robert E. Lee, back to a prominent position in the capitol rotunda? Intelligent blacks know Barnes opposed affirmative action while in the state legislature. As governor, his affirmative action record is worst than Lester Maddox and Joe Frank Harris' combined, relatively speaking. His brazen theft of MARTA and its public transportation matching funds for metropolitan Atlanta will go down as America's Greatest Train Robbery (GRTA).

It is time those elected to represent blacks do more than collect a paycheck. We do not need narcoleptic nincompoops selling us down the drain, while claiming to represent our best interest. We know better! Black Georgians, young and old, pushed the flag issue onto the front burner. Never supporting our call for a boycott, our black elected officials, the SCLC, NAACP and those other initials that claim to represent our best interest, cut a deal with Barnes that basically made us look more foolish than blacks in South Carolina and Mississippi. Adding insult to injury, now we must, by law, honor confederate heritage. Did anyone read the bill that changed the flag? Or, did our elected officials read it, and understanding it signed on because they are just plain hypocrites. Only hypocrites would force blacks into the position of having to legally honor confederate heritage. Hypocrites or just very stupid, black elected officials did not serve our interest by supporting that flag bill. Extending the MARTA sales tax until 2047 in DeKalb and Fulton Counties, while the economic development funded with public transportation matching dollars goes to predominantly white counties where the tax is not even imposed, is another heartbreaking example of not serving our best interest. Our elected officials supported this taxation without representation and tried to tell us we "just do not understand the process." Sadly, they are still silent on MARTA's theft.

Multi-member districts will not improve black representation. The idea behind redistricting is to increase representation for the under or unrepresented. Multi-member districts will allow the same simple white majority to elect all the representatives from those districts. A shift of 100 votes can give whites that could elect only one legislator, the ability to elect two or more. Black elected officials are hereby placed on notice: speak to our interests and serve your own.

If Barnes is allowed to carry out his plan, you will be digging your own graves. The new majority multi-member 'Dixiecrat' districts will vote you out of office. White Democrats will vote for white Republicans before they vote for black Democrats remember that. What happened to Louise Lucas in Virginia is an prime example of white Democrats voting white Republicans into office. White Georgia Democrats supported George W. Bush. With a Democratic governor, two Democratic Senators and a majority Democrat state legislature and US House delegation, Georgia gave Bush its Electoral College votes before Georgia citizens, black and white, cast the first ballot.

The population of blacks and other minorities in Georgia increased, therefore, their representation is supposed to increase, not whites. Redistricting should not favor rural white areas at the expense of urban centers. To ensure we receive representation commensurate with taxation, 30 % of Georgia's districts should have legislators we elect; our numbers are just that strong. If those currently representing us work to maximize our representation in the legislature, then they will avoid the trap of multi-member districts.

CC: Henrietta Turnquest, George Maddox, Nadine Thomas, Connie Stokes, Donzella James, Bob Holmes, Tyrone Brooks, Carl Von Epps, David Scott, Vincent Forte, Calvin Smyre, Charlie Walker and Billy McKinney