![[Imagemap]](/US/images/nav_us.gif){kind=small}
December 5, 1995
Web posted at: 4:05 p.m. EST
From Correspondent Anthony Collings
DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in one of the most racially sensitive cases in recent history. At issue: whether congressional districts can be divided to give minorities more clout.
Dallas housewife Polly Orcutt is unhappy with how her district has been divided. Until a few years ago, she and her neighbors lived in a majority-white congressional district. But map makers have since put Orcutt's part of the neighborhood into a district which is 50 percent African-American.
"It's ridiculous," said Orcutt, who is white. "It's not the right thing to do. It's the wrong thing to do, if you want to call it that, because you're dividing neighborhoods."
The Texas legislature created the new congressional district to give minorities more clout. The district is oddly shaped, using a white neighborhood to connect two predominately black areas.
"Well, now, to get black votes, fine, but don't use my neighborhood. Because ... you aren't integrating us, you're separating us.
-- Polly Orcutt
(94K AIFF sound or 94K WAV sound)
Along with other Texas politicians, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, created the 1991 district as a state senator. She then ran for Congress in it and won.
Critics say the map discriminates in some neighborhoods.
"The people on the right hand side of Felix (Street) are primarily white and they're in one congressional district. The people on the other side of Felix Street, and a few blocks north are primarily black and they're in another congressional district," said Edward Blumof the Campaign for a Color-blind America. "That is just pure and simple segregation, and it's wrong,"
But supporters say blacks are only doing the same thing whites have done.
"It's always been racial gerrymandering. It's been white racial gerrymandering. We've been gerrymandered out."
-- John Wiley Price, Dallas County Commissioner
(60K AIFF sound or 60K WAV sound)
"If there's no problem with drawing districts to accommodate Anglo representatives, congressmen, senators, what have you, what is the problem for African-Americans having majority districts?" asked Linda Darden, a black Dallas voter. (153K AIFF sound or 153K WAV sound)
To win Supreme Court approval, supporters have to prove the map reflects more than just race.
"Not only was the legislature trying to create an African-American district, but they were also trying to protect all of the various incumbents," said Mayor Ron Kirk, who is black.
Critics don't buy that argument.
"If you match up the demographics and the district lines, you see that the overwhelming motivation here was race," said Daniel Troy, attorney for a group called Opponents of Texas Districting Plan.
Since the last census, some two dozen new election districts have been created across the country to give minorities more clout. They could be thrown out, and minority representation in Congress reduced, if the Supreme Court says it's wrong to divide voters by race.
Copyright © 1995 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.