> it's pretty naive to think that racists in Mississippi
> and Alabama, who never went away, wouldn't seize on the
> chance to reinstitute something resembling Jim Crow laws.
http://mississippibelieveit.com/home/
>The “good ole boy” network alive and well in Mississippi? Not hardly. Our new “network” consists of more black elected officials than any other state in the country – a number that grew from a mere 81 in 1970 to 897 in 2000.
Mississippi is as racist today as Russia is Communist. Give me a break.
Creating 99% black districts to consolidate the black vote into the smallest number of seats isn't really support for your position, even if the people doing it are pure post-racial political optimizers (they're not post-racial).
Also, I don't know how old you are, but you do realize that many southern people from 50 short years ago are still alive, right? You're positing that right after the civil rights act was passed, all those people firehosing black people and setting the dogs on them and stuff, they just changed their minds and did a 180? And raised their kids that way?
>In the state of Ohio, a conversation between Republican officials was recorded that demonstrated that redistricting was being done to aid their political candidates. Furthermore, the discussions assessed race of voters as a factor in redistricting, because African-Americans had backed Democratic candidates. Republicans apparently removed approximately 13,000 African American voters from the district of Jim Raussen, a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives, in an attempt to tip the scales in what was once a competitive district for Democratic candidates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#United_States
That's coming at you from blue-collar freezing-cold northern Ohio.
Furthermore, "right after" the Civil Rights act was passed? It was passed a full 47 years ago.