University of Virginia Library

John Epps

Richmond: Wards And The Council

Richmond City Council
candidates must be turning
green with envy as they watch
the candidates for state-wide
office begin to throw their
campaigns into high gear.
Council elections in the capital
have already been delayed for
over a year and the chances for
elections in 1973 were dealt a
blow Monday by a three-judge
panel in Washington.

The panel was investigating
whether or not Richmond's
1970 annexation, of portions
of predominantly white
Chesterfield, County has the
"purpose or effect of diluting
the black vote" in the city.
They were hearing a suit
brought against the city by
black Council candidate Curtis
Holt. On Monday they ordered
U.S. magistrate Lawrence S.
Margolis to conduct the
hearing and report to the panel
by October 1. The panel will
then review Margolis's
findings and rule on the
case. It is expected, therefore,
that a ruling is not forthcoming
in 1973.

What the brouhaha is all
about is the Federal Voting
Rights Act which requires any
southern city to gain federal
approval for any change in its
election laws. Such approval
for Richmond's change has yet
to be offered. Many observers
and especially blacks in the
city feel the motivation behind
the annexation was to offset
the rising percentage of black
voters in Richmond. With
Council members elected
at-large, as they are in
Richmond, the whites
incorporated into the city by
the annexation would enhance
the lily-white Team of
Progress's chances of
maintaining a majority on
Council.

The evidence seems to lead
to this conclusion. Even the
city's counsel was quoted in
the Richmond Times-Dispatch
as saying the annexation
caused a violation of the
Voting Rights Act. Most
people are accepting this
conclusion, but a new conflict
is arising over what remedy
should be used to rectify the
situation.

One of the most realistic
has been submitted by
Richmond's Crusade for
Voters. The Crusade's plan
calls for the city to be broken
up into nine wards, with each
ward electing its own Council
member. City Council has
come up with a similar plan
but one which would not
rectify the weakening of black
voter strength.

The Crusade's proposal
would require some very
crooked boundaries and fairly
broken-up wards, but it would
seem that this type of
gerrymandering is necessary for
blacks in the city to realize the
political strength they are due,
being about 42 percent of the
city's population. Under this
plan many experts feel blacks
could elect as many as five of
the nine Council members.

Richmond, therefore, could
conceivably become the second
city in Virginia's history to
elect a black mayor. Petersburg
became the first   on July
4 of this year. That is what
scares the TOP members.
Richmond government, it
would seem, would have to
change its focus from aiding
and abetting the white
commuter to alleviating the
problems of the city, especially
the inner city. For example,
the new Richmond
expressway, the pride of the
present Council, would
probably have been scrapped
or altered, had it been voted on
by a black Council. The
highway caused wholesale
destruction of black homes in
the city but did not even nick
nearby Rothesay Circle,
probably the most exclusive
white residential area in the
city. With a black Council,
social welfare problems would
probably gain new emphasis.

But most importantly, with
a Council elected by wards, the
Council members would
probably be more responsive to
the citizens of their districts.
No more could the West End
of Richmond rule the Council
and no more would the poor in
Fulton Bottom be
unrepresented.