Gommillion at 60

     Sixty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in a case involving Tuskegee Alabama.
     Gommillion v Lightfoot stemmed from a decision by the Alabama Legislature to redraw the city of Tuskegee's boundaries to water down black voting strength, blocking some black voters from city elections.
     The old city lines were in a square. The new gerrymandered lines were a 28 point design that eliminated all but a few black voters, but left white voters in the city intact.

The Square sides of the map show the original Tuskegee

limits, The lighter block shows the new city limits.

     The U.S. Supreme Court decision was unanimous...the Legislature's action was a violation of the 15th Amendment.
     89 year old veteran Alabama Civil Rights lawyer Fred Gray was a young man when he went before the Supreme Court to argue the case. He still practices law in Tuskegee and Montgomery.
     You can listen to tape of his arguments before the court in 1960 at the Oyez Project webpage here.