General question: Didn't the Congressional Black Caucus and the GOP House leadership work out a scheme, some years ago, to essentially guarantee a certain number of Black-held seats by creating several heavily Democratic districts, essentially leaving the rest of the districts to their own (white, Republican) devices?
It seems to have worked, as Black representation in the House essentially equals the Black share of the national population, with 49 Black representatives (including 3 Republicans) out of 435, and of course the GOP has held the house 18 of the last 22 years.
It is conceivable--likely, even, that Democratic schemes to limit gerrymandering could reduce the number of Black-held districts?
I never heard of a deal between
them, but I did read about many Democratic state legislators being very pleased and impressed with how much the Justice Dept, under President Bush 41, was eager to help, and even insist, that more black-majority districts were going to be drawn during 1991 than ever before.
