Gomillion Versus Lightfoot: The Right to Vote in Apartheid Alabama

By Bernard Taper

Book Overview

The account of the landmark constitutional law decision on racial redistricting

This book was first published in 1962 to critical acclaim. It details the lawsuit that Charles C. Gomillion, chairman of Tuskegee Institute's Division of Social Sciences and president of the Tuskegee Civic Association, filed against that Alabama city's mayor, Philip M. Lightfoot, to protest the black community'' loss of voting rights. Because Tuskegee's black population in 1957 (5,300) far outnumbered its white population (1,400) and because the highly educated black community had made persistent and successful efforts to register as voters, the Alabama Legislature redrew the city's boundaries to exclude most of the African-American districts, effectively converting Tuskegee to a white city. Gomillion's lawsuit, which was lost twice in lower courts, alleged that Tuskegee's black citizens had been illegally gerrymandered out of their constitutional right to vote. In 1960 the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, writing, "The inescapable human effect of this . . . is to despoil colored citizens, and only colored citizens, of their theretofore enjoyed voting rights."

As a result of Gomillion vs. Lightfoot, the Supreme Court unanimously questioned the constitutionality of redistricting voting precincts along racial lines, not only in Tuskegee but nationwide. Taper's well-written, thorough account will be welcomed by students and scholars of constitutional law, Alabama and southern history, and civil rights.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817350446
• ISBN13: 9780817350444
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Fire Ant Books
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.7"