A.G. Gancarski
When it comes to the redistricting squabble, U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown isn’t going away quietly.
A news release from her shop addresses Monday’s events, and gives clues as to what’s to come.
“On Thursday, August 6, 2015, on the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Congresswoman Corrine Brown filed a motion to intervene in Warriner v. Detzner, a pending federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Florida. However, in order to prevent Ms. Brown’s intervention, just days later, the Plaintiffs filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal,” the release begins.
“This situation today is akin to what happened with Florida’s first black member of Congress, Josiah Thomas Walls, who was elected in the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era, serving from 1871 to 1876. Every time Walls won the election, there was another lawsuit. After the third lawsuit, the courthouse was burned down. Similarly, these events are nothing more than legal maneuvering designed to prevent Congresswoman Brown’s access to the courthouse,” the release continues.
“Congresswoman Brown will not be deterred in her efforts to rectify the violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The creation of District 5 was the direct result of years of litigation to remedy decades of vote dilution experienced by African Americans that denied them the opportunity to elect representatives of their choice,” Brown adds.
“After the 1990 decennial census, Florida was apportioned four additional Congressional seats, for a total of 23 members of Congress. Prior to the 1992 election, Florida had not had a federal African American Congressperson since Josiah Thomas Walls, in 1871. Nationally, prior to the passage of the VRA in 1965, between the years of 1832-1965, there were only 28 elected African Americans, and from 1965-present, there were/are 103 elected African Americans,”
Brown has framed her struggle in historical terms consistently, and history says that she will not go down without a fight.
What is certain: There will be a next move.
There always is.
