IN BRIEF: In DeSoto County, Mississippi, Black residents are long overdue for fair representation in their local government. And the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is working with local clients to finally secure it.
In September 2024, LDF, along with the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Mississippi, and voting rights attorney Amir Badat, filed a lawsuit on behalf of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the DeSoto County NAACP, and two individual DeSoto County residents. This lawsuit alleges that the county’s current voting map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The DeSoto County Board of Supervisors adopted that map in 2022, and it governs elections for five public offices in each of the county’s five districts.
The lawsuit makes clear that the DeSoto County map fails to provide Black residents with the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice to office, denying them full access to the fair representation that the Constitution requires. The 2022 redistricting plan covers elections for the board of supervisors, board of education, election commission, justice court, and constables. Not one of those 25 county offices is currently held by a Black representative, even though the Black population of DeSoto County has grown from less than 12% to over 36% since the 2000 Census.
All five districts in the 2022 plan were drawn to have majority-white populations. Many Black candidates have tried to run for these offices, but not one Black candidate has been elected in the past 20 years.
WHY IT MATTERS: Democracy is at stake in Mississippi. The people of DeSoto County deserve a nondiscriminatory map and redistricting process. This should be the bare minimum standard.
Who represents the county’s residents matters. These county offices provide funding that profoundly affects the distribution of resources and services that can change lives.
And this denial of full and equal voting rights has caused irreparable harm to Black communities in DeSoto County. Black citizens are greatly underrepresented in county jobs, schools with majority Black student populations are under-resourced, and there are continuing gaps in education, income, and health care outcomes between Black and white DeSoto County residents.
Notably, Black voters can elect candidates of their choice when their voting power isn’t diluted through unfair maps. In fact, DeSoto County residents elected a Black candidate, Theresa Gillespie Isom, to the Mississippi State Senate in 2025, after a similar lawsuit forced the creation of a new Black-opportunity Senate district in DeSoto County.
A fair map that fully represents DeSoto County’s electorate will protect DeSoto County’s families and communities. Our democracy can only function when everyone is fully, freely, and fairly able to exercise their foundational right to vote. A “democratic” system that refuses to allow its citizens access based on the color of their skin is one in name only.
ON THE HORIZON: The trial for Harris v. DeSoto County is set to begin on Monday, Jan. 26, in the Northern District of Mississippi. It’s expected to last for two weeks.
In Mississippi and across the country, LDF and our civil rights allies will never stop fighting for fair representation and access for Black voters.
Whether it’s combating discriminatory redistricting plans and burdensome documentary requirements for voting, or fighting for increased language access materials and other accessibility measures, LDF will continue to pursue a fairer electoral system in order to fulfill the promise of our multiracial democracy.
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