Faith leaders spoke in favor of creating five majority Black districts for county legislature

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Members of the Spiritus Christi Anti-racism Coalition spoke in favor of the plan to create five majority Black districts for the Monroe County legislature election.

Faith leaders met at Spiritus Christi church on Monday night and said are entitled to these revisions under the Voting Rights Act. Members of the faith leaders roundtable and local lawmakers called on Monroe County Executive Adam Bello to support the new redistricting map.

More of our coverage:

• Bello releases redistricting report by voting rights expert (Oct 14)
• Former mayor Warren speaks in support of new legislative districts map (Sept 29)
• Infighting continues among county Democrats over redistricting (Sept 21)
• Monroe County Legislature releases third version of redistricting map (Sept 6)

“Listen to the people who live in those districts, who serve in those districts, and they’ll tell you what’s best for those districts,” said one member. “This is really no different than what happened during white flight in the seventies with redlining. That was banking redlining. This is political redlining. That’s what it is. It’s political redlining. You’re gerrymandering the districts, so they can serve your own political purpose, but it is not helping the people at all.”

Opponents of the plan say it would unfairly lump Black voters into districts. They say it would only serve the legislators advocating for it.

Recently, Bello hired an expert to craft another plan that would create six “effective minority districts.”