What is the Black Belt?

The Black Belt is a region of highly fertile black soil in the American South that was the center of slavery and continues to hold a large African American population in the 21st century. This region shows up regularly on voting maps as a string of blue counties slicing through a sea of red.

For much of the last century the Black Belt has been a Democratic stronghold, enduring the political realignment brought on by Republicans’ “Southern Strategy”. Yet despite this unwavering support, African American voters still struggle to receive adequate representation in government to this day. A glaring example: Mississippi has the nation’s largest concentration of Black people in the country (38% of MS residents identify as African American) yet it has failed to elect a Black person to any statewide office for over 100 years.

When looking at the region through the lens of US House districts: there are a total of 16 majority-Black House districts in the American South. 12 of those districts fall within the traditional Black Belt, spanning from the Mississippi River up to southern Virginia. The other 4 majority-Black House districts in this group run through southern cities like Memphis, New Orleans and Baltimore. Not only do Democrats hold control over all of these districts, every currently serving House representative is members of the Congressional Black Caucus (…except for TN-9. Steven Cohen stands out as the only White representative in the nation that represents a majority-Black district.)

One of these districts is at risk for flipping in the upcoming election. North Carolina’s 12th district will be open as Rep. G.K. Butterfield announced his retirement from the House. The district’s new configuration makes it a swing district as Biden won the district by only 8.9 points in 2020.

Racial Gerrymandering and SCOTUS

While the redistricting process is supposed to be complete at this point, most of these Black Belt states have outstanding racial gerrymandering lawsuits. Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, North and South Carolina ALL have lawsuits alleging racial discrimination for not including enough majority-Black districts in accordance with the Voting Rights Act. This alone is an abhorrent trend across the South as many of these Black voters have been wrapped into districts where they are outnumbered by White voters (many of whom continue to hold racial animosity toward Black voters.) Then SCOTUS stepped in and made it worse.

When accepting to hear these racial gerrymandering cases, SCOTUS put a stay on lower court rulings that demanded states draw new, fairer maps. As a result, these states are effectively cleared to use these racially gerrymandered maps for the 2022 election while SCOTUS hears these cases. To be clear, even if SCOTUS decided these maps are unconstitutional after the election, that won’t automatically unseat the House members that were voted in via the gerrymandered map. SCOTUS’s lack of a clear decision prior to the election means that the Republican legislatures who drew these unfair maps have successfully disenfranchised African Americans yet again.

Leftover Links

• Dive deeper into the Black Belt via past Battleground content on these states.

• Learn more about whatever the hell SCOTUS is doing with these racial gerrymandering lawsuits.

• Keep an eye on North Carolina’s open swing district as Democratic state senator Don Davis takes on Republican Sandy Smith.