City Government

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones Rules GOP’s Redistricting Maps Unfair to Georgia’s Black Voters

Judge Steve C. Jones of the Northern District of Georgia slapped down the redistricting maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature to accommodate the requirements of the 2020 census data and ruled that new maps must be redrawn to provide for equitable and fair representation for Black voters before the 2024 election.

Published

3 years ago

November 7, 2023

Oakland Post

The Honorable Steve C. Jones. Official portrait.

By Post Staff from News Sources

Jones’ ruling demands that the Georgia State Legislature create new maps on or before Dec. 8. In his timeline he wrote, “if an acceptable remedy is not produced, there will be time for the court warning to fashion one.”

The principle of requiring Republican mapmakers to move with dispatch and deliberate speed was cited to send a clear message to Georgia and its population that the state’s one-third Black population must not be excluded.

Jones’ 506-page decision states that the court “will not allow another election cycle on redistricting plans” that had been found to be unlawful.

According to the Associated Press, Jones “ordered the state to draw two new Black-majority districts in Georgia’s 56-member state Senate and five new Black-majority districts in its 180-member state House.”

Jones decision clearly showed that he understood the geopolitical significance of Atlanta’s place, struggles and voices that had helped persuade Congress and the President to sign the 1965 Voting Rights Bill.

In his decision, Jones wrote “Georgia has made great strides since 1965 towards equality in voting. However, the evidence before this court shows that Georgia has not reached the point where the political process has equal openness and equal opportunity for everyone.”

Jones’ Georgia Federal Court ruling will also impact voting discrimination charges that are being argued in other Southern states by Republicans who are now trying to justify congressional maps that appear to discriminate against Black voters.

In response to Jones ruling, Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, one of the plaintiffs in the case and a presiding prelate of the Sixth Episcopal District, said “While it has been a long march to justice, the decision reaffirms what so many of us already knew, that extremists in our own Legislature did indeed illegally map out the congressional and legislative districts to weaken the vote of Georgia’s Black voters.”

After citing Frederick Douglass, who once said that ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand,’ Jackson also said in a statement that “Together, the people of Georgia and our justice system have now demanded that those in power must right these wrongs and I sincerely hope that the process of now redrawing Georgia’s districts is done swiftly, thoroughly, and complies with the letter of the law.”

The Sixth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) comprises churches within the State of Georgia, totaling over 90,000 parishioners.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”