Scotlandville, Louisiana Black community loses congressional representation after redistricting

Scotlandville, a historically Black community of 10,000 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, faces a future without local congressional representation after redistricting reduced its district's Black population from 53% to 25%. Following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against key Voting Rights Act protections, Democratic Representative Cleo Fields announced he will not seek reelection to Congress, opting instead to run for the state legislature. The redrawn map aligns with Republican efforts to secure five of Louisiana's six House seats.

Redistricting in Scotlandville

• ▪Scotlandville, a nearly all-Black community of 10,000 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was redistricted into a majority-white congressional district for the second time in 2026 following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, after first occurring in 1996.
• ▪In 1993, Scotlandville was included in Louisiana's 4th Congressional District, which had been redrawn to create a majority-Black seat.

Cleo Fields' political plans

• ▪Representative Cleo Fields plans to leave the U.S. House of Representatives and run for the Louisiana Legislature instead of seeking reelection in the redrawn 6th Congressional District.
• ▪Democratic Representative Cleo Fields announced in July 2026 that he would not run for reelection to the U.S. House after his district's Black population was reduced from 53% to 25%.

Louisiana Leadership Institute

• ▪Representative Cleo Fields founded the Louisiana Leadership Institute in 1993 to provide civics, leadership, and arts education to youth in the Scotlandville community.
• ▪Baton Rouge Councilman Anthony Kenney Jr. participated in civics, government, and policy programs at the Louisiana Leadership Institute during his youth.

Supreme court rulings on redistricting

• ▪The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a core part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 intended to protect minority political rights was unconstitutional, triggering redistricting changes across the American South.
• ▪The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority declared Louisiana's 6th Congressional District unconstitutional, forcing Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee to redraw their U.S. House districts before the 2026 elections.

Republican efforts to secure congressional control

• ▪New congressional boundaries drawn by Louisiana's Republican-led Legislature are designed to give Republicans an opportunity to win five of the state's six U.S. House seats in the 2026 election.
• ▪A lawsuit filed by a group of non-Black voters over Louisiana redistricting coincided with efforts by Donald Trump to encourage Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps to secure party control of Congress

History of Voting Rights and gerrymandering

• ▪White leaders in the American South historically utilized gerrymandering to prevent Black communities from gaining enough political power to elect their preferred representatives.
• ▪The Voting Rights Act of 1965 allowed citizens to challenge discriminatory voting laws and required historically discriminatory jurisdictions to obtain federal approval before changing maps.

Debatable claims

• ▪The Supreme Court's Voting Rights Act ruling undermines equal representation for minority voters
• ▪Effective representation for minority communities depends on having representatives of their own race
• ▪States should draw congressional districts to guarantee representation for minority communities
• ▪Partisan redistricting by state legislatures is a legitimate exercise of political power