NAACP encouraged in fight with city

Friday, June 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Chester Richardson, the No. 2 man at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the court's decision to prohibit racial gerrymandering solidifies plans to sue the city.

The NAACP opposed changes made to the four council wards because it created a 44-percent minority district with a median income of $22,900.

"Clearly, the court said that race should not be used as a predominate factor and the City Council plainly did so," Richardson said Thursday.

The city consultant, Frederick Kessler, a retired Wisconsin judge, is confident the redrawn wards will withstand a legal test. Though race factored into the council's final map, a growing population was the main reason the boundaries were redrawn, he said.

"We haven't used race as the sole identifier and we have not gone to the point of using bizarre shapes" for districts, Kessler said. In an earlier case, the Supreme Court said that oddly shaped voting districts were automatically suspect.

The consultant said it was logical to merge predominantly black West Las Vegas with the Hispanic neighborhoods to the east. But Richardson disagrees.

"Historically, the Hispanic community and the black community have separate goals, separate cultures and have never voted for the same political candidate," he said. "We will muster our resources to take the city into federal court to reverse this disparity."

By Rachael Levy