United States Supreme Court

“ The requirement that the city allocate to the Negro community in the larger city the voting power or the seats on the city council in excess of its proportion in the new community and thus permanently to underrepresent other elements in the community is fundamentally at odds with the position we have expressed earlier in this opinion, and we cannot approve treating the failure to satisfy it as evidence of any purpose proscribed by 5. ”

“ If the proportion of blacks in the new citizenry from the annexed area is appreciably less than the proportion of blacks living within the city's old boundaries, and particularly if there is a history of racial bloc voting in the city, the voting power of black citizens as a class is diluted and thus abridged." 376 F. Supp., at 1348 (footnote omitted) .
Measured against these standards, the dilutive effect of Richmond's annexation is clear, both as a matter of semantics and as a matter of political realities. ”

“ We have consistently held that the substantive issue of discriminatory purpose or effect under 5 can be litigated only in the District Court for the District of Columbia; the sole question open for consideration in any other district court is whether a state voting practice or requirement is of the sort required by 5 to be submitted for prior approval. ”

“ As long as the ward system fairly reflects the strength of the Negro community as it exists after the annexation, we cannot hold, without more specific legislative directions, that such an annexation is nevertheless barred by 5. It is true that the black community, if there is racial bloc voting, will command fewer seats on the city council ”

“ Municipal politicians who are fearful of losing their political control to emerging black voting majorities are today placed on notice that their control can be made secure as long as they can find concentrations of white citizens into which to expand their municipal boundaries. ”

“ An annexation reducing the relative political strength of the minority race in the enlarged city as compared with what it was before the annexation does not violate 5 of the Act as long as the postannexation system fairly recognizes, as it does in this case; the minority's political potential. ”

“ In 1969 a Virginia court approved annexation by the city of Richmond, effective January 1, 1970, of an adjacent area in Chesterfield County, which reduced the proportion of Negroes in Richmond from 52% to 42%. The preannexation nine-man city council, which was elected at large, had three members who were endorsed by a Negro civic organization. In a postannexation at-large election in 1970, three of the nine members elected were also endorsed by that organization. ”

“ Matthews, supra, holding that 5 applies to annexations, we said:
"Clearly, revision of boundary lines has an effect on voting in two ways: (1) by including certain voters within the city and leaving others outside, it determines who may vote in the municipal election and who may not; (2) it dilutes the weight of the votes of the voters to whom the franchise was limited before the annexation, and `the right of suffrage can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen's vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise.' Reynolds v. ”

“ United States, supra, the city sought a declaratory judgment that a proposed annexation satisfied the standards of 5. Councilmen were elected at large; Negroes made up more than half the population, but less than half the voters; and the area to be annexed contained a heavy white majority. ”

“ Certainly there is nothing in 5 which suggests that black voters could or should be given a disproportionately high share of the voting power in a postannexation community; where the racial composition of an annexed area is substantially different from that of the annexing area, it may well be impossible to protect preannexation black voting strength without invidiously diluting the voting strength of other racial groups in the community. ”

“ Matthews, supra, held that boundary changes by annexation have a sufficient potential for racial voting discrimination to require 5 approval procedures, this does not mean that every annexation effecting a percentage reduction in the Negro population is prohibited by 5. ”

“ Furthermore, in fashioning the ward system the city had not, the court held, minimized the dilution of black voting power to the greatest possible extent, relying for this conclusion on another ward plan presented by intervenors which would have improved the chance that Negroes would control five out of the nine wards. ”

“ The record is replete with statements by Richmond officials which prove beyond question that the predominant (if not the sole) motive and desire of the negotiators of the 1969 settlement was to acquire 44,000 additional white citizens for Richmond, in order to avert a transfer of political control to what was fast becoming a black-population majority.8 The District Court's findings on this point were quite explicit:
"Richmond's focus in the negotiations was upon the number of new white voters it could obtain by annexation ”

“ If this is so, it may be asked how it could be forbidden by 5 to have the purpose and intent of achieving only what is a perfectly legal result under that section and why we need remand for further proceedings with respect to purpose alone. The answer is plain, and we need not labor it. ”