Sarasota attorneys file lawsuit over alleged gerrymandering in African American district

Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. Coming up—

A class-action lawsuit filed in Federal Court in Tampa claims that redistricting is actively depriving African Americans of the right to vote in a local county.

We’ll talk about that in a moment. Later in this program we’ll also bring you some live coverage of the debate over impeachment from the US House.

But first one listener comment about the interview yesterday with the human rights activist from Israel.

Here’s what one listener had to say.

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A federal lawsuit has been filed in Tampa against the Sarasota County Commission’s new redistricting map.

The discrimination claim stems from the fact that Sarasota commissioners drew new districts this year, removing the historically African American community of Newtown and surrounding neighborhoods from Sarasota commission District 1 which is up for election next year. The African American voters were largely moved to neighboring districts—making the possibility of electing an African American county commissioner almost impossible.

This lawsuit was filed by attorney Hugh Culverhouse, a Sarasota and Miami resident, and Larry Kellogg in Miami, along with Steven D. Hutton of Sarasota. Culverhouse and Kellogg join us now.