James: Oppose Diluting Minority Vote
Last Saturday the Sarasota County government named part of the Betty Jean Johnson Library after my late father, Dr. Ed James II. The dedication was due to his civil rights work in Sarasota, which included his participation in the landmark lawsuit bearing my namesake: James v. City of Sarasota in 1985.
My father, along with other community leaders, sued the city for a representative voice in Sarasota city government by demanding the fair application of single-member districts in the city of Sarasota, and won. The point was to ensure that the minority community of north Sarasota had a meaningful say in the direction of our community with fair and representative district lines.
Although I’m truly grateful to the Sarasota County Commission for recognizing my father’s contribution to local democracy, I’m appalled by its recent efforts to rejig the district lines, which could postpone my community’s participation in the upcoming Sarasota County Commission election. I refuse to sit by idly while the echoes of past injustices that my father and others fought so hard to remedy reverberate louder by the day in our County Commission chambers.
It was recently uncovered by the Herald-Tribune that insiders were promoting district maps embraced by the Commission that would not only cast out the sole candidate currently filed to run in our district, but exclude most of north Sarasota, and all of Newtown, by sliding it into another district not up for election until 2022.
Thus, not only removing the largest minority community in the county from the district, but depriving us of our participation in selecting a representative for another two years. That’s assuming north Sarasota isn’t swapped again during the mandatory 2020 census redistricting, postponing our participation even longer. The county’s own website, which mirrors federal law, instructs against diluting minority voting strength. What could be more offensive to minority participation in an election than postponing that participation by years to a date uncertain?
The coy endorsement of the “Smith” map by those entrusted to implement the will of the voters through Sarasota County’s single-member district amendment is a bridge too far. As someone who worked hard to pass that amendment last year, I oppose any change that delays the minority community’s participation in the democratic process and steadfastly lend my support in opposing these efforts to remove my community from our current district.
To our community, historical voter disenfranchisement isn’t theoretical — it lives in the not too distant memories of our friends, families and neighbors living and breathing in a community we hold dear. While the Sarasota County Commission has broad authority to redistrict whether it makes sense or not, that authority does not permit returning to the unjust disenfranchising policies of our past.
My father often said,
“if you aren’t sitting at the table then you’ll surely be on the menu,”
and accordingly, I rise in opposition to the current ploy to put the voters of north Sarasota on the menu for the local political tricksters attempting to hijack the democratic process in Sarasota County
