emies of the governor, and other perceivedrnne’er-do-wells. One Republican’srndistrict was deliberately drawn fivernblocks away from his house. AnotherrnRepublican was drawn out of her ownrnHouse district; when she declared forrnthe state Senate, she was then drawn outrnof her Senate district. A number of Republicansrnuprooted their households andrnrelocated in order to run for reelection inrntheir own districts. When 15 Republicansrnand one Independent were “paired”rninto single House districts (no Democratsrnwere paired except for one delegaternwho had declared for the state Senate),rnRepublicans filed a lawsuit againstrnthe plan in U. S. District Court. Thernjudge concurred that it was a dreadfulrncase of blatantly partisan gerrymanderingrnbut said that he could do nothingrnabout it. Another case, filed in circuitrncourt by rural Southside localities,rncharged that the plans for a new serpentinernand two other districts dilutedrncommunities of interest and violatedrnstate constitutional contiguity and compactnessrnrequirements. They also lost.rnThe Justice Department rejected thernplans of five localities. One county,rnPowhatan, took a strong stand and resubmittedrnits plan, appealing directly tornthe U. S. Attorney General after its localrnelections (as well as those of other localities)rnwere postponed indefinitely byrnthe Justice Department. Powhatan’srncase is particularly interesting becausernit illustrates inherent problems with redistricting.rnBlack population has declinedrnfrom 20.46 percent to 15.57 percentrnof the total population and isrnscattered in communities throughoutrnthe whole of the rural county—makingrncompact black districts an impossibility.rnJustice also ordered a change in howrnPowhatan included the resident staternprison population in the county’s blackmajorityrndistrict plan—although felonsrndo not vote in Virginia.rnIn his letter to the U. S. AttorneyrnGeneral, Powhatan Board of SupervisorsrnChairman R. Lee Ware asked for interventionrnto prevent the Justice Departmentrnfrom “wittingly or unwittinglyrndamaging the community and polity”rnof the homes of the county’s residents.rnWare noted that Justice’s black-majorityrndistrict boundaries “loop, squiggle, andrnjog across uncrossable terrain withoutrnregard to either geography or actualrncommunities of people.” He emphasizedrnthat “Powhatan is not two communities,rnone white, one black. We arernone community, black and white.” Hernadded that the department’s order “isrnboth philosophically wrong and practicallyrndestructive—wrong for all concerned,rnand destructive of a whole-clothrncommunity.” “[W]e not only reject,rnbut are offended by, the suggestion thatrnfederal voting-rights statutes mean tornimply that only a white can in public lifernrepresent the interests of white citizens,rnor that only a black can in public officernrepresent the interests of black citizens.”rnIndeed, the more a community is integratedrn—the more it has penetrated thern”intermediate color line” of housing andrnjobs—the more difficult it is to fulfillrnthe federal mandate.rnPowhatan is now proceeding underrnthe assumption that Justice will permitrntheir local elections to be held inrnNovember—after a year’s delay. Currently,rnBrunswick County is fighting Justice’srndecision to reject its new plan andrnto cancel its November election. Justicernis also looking askance at a new staternstatute permitting local-option referendarnfor directly elected school boards, andrn20 localities with that question onrnNovember’s ballot ma}’ have to postponernor cancel their referenda. Virginia remainsrnthe only state in the nation withoutrnan elected school board option.rn(Additionally, Virginia has no electedrnjudges.)rnIn a supreme twist of irony, the prcclearancernrequirement and the 1965rnU. S. Supreme Court Mann v. Davis decision,rnwhich initiated the reapportionmentrnmandate of “one man, one vote”rn(now called “one person, one vote”), hasrnresulted in banned voting for months orrnyears in some localities, in less representativerngovernment by duly elected officialsrn(as well as less direct democracy),rnand in decreased turnout for baffled,rndisaffected voters who see no naturalrnlogic in being “moved” to other districtsrnmarked by geographical and political disorder.rnThe same federal officials who findrnSouth Africa’s segregated townships reprehensiblernapparently see no inconsistencyrnwith approving the deliberate, dernjure, reservation-like partitioning of communitiesrnto prejudice electoral outcomes.rnAs Ware commented, “The federalrnauthorities are convinced thatrneveryone in the South is racist, and the’rnare making sure that the South knowsrnit is still under Reconstruction.”rnIn order to escape from under the federalrnboot of preclearance, not one complaintrn—founded or unfounded—can bernfiled to Justice against a state for a fullrnten years. Don’t look for that to happenrnin Virginia any time soon. The ambitiousrnlawmaking majority and the specialrninterest groups know how to wieldrnabsolute power when they’ve seized it.rnAnne Marie Morgan writes fromrnChesterfield.rnLetter From thernLower Rightrnby John Shelton ReedrnThe New AmericarnYeah, I know we’ve got two Southernersrnrunning on the Democratic ticket.rnDon’t rub it in, OK? As Miss Scarlettrnused to say, I’ll think about it tomorrow.rnLet’s talk about sports.rnAs you probably know, in four yearsrnjocks and TV cameramen from aroundrnthe world will converge on Dixie for thernnext Olympic Games. Atlanta beat outrnAthens (the one in Greece) for the privilegernof playing host that year, a victoryrnall the sweeter because 1996 will markrnthe 100th anniversary of the modernrnGames. Georgia in July is not where Irnwould choose to exert myself, but I guessrnthe folks who make the decision aren’trnthe same ones who do the exerting.rnAnyway, those of us who enjoy secondaryrnsweat will be seeing a lot of it.rnWe’ll also be seeing a lot of Atlanta,rnwhich is pretty much the point as far asrnthe boosters arc concerned. Years ago,rnW. J. Cash wrote about the skyscrapersrngoing up in Southern towns with “littlernmore use for them than a hog has for arnmorning coat” that these buildings werernerected just for the glory of it, anotherrn”native gesture of an incurably romanticrnpeople, enamored before all else ofrnthe magnificent and the spectacular.”rnThat observation helped me understandrnthe Knoxville and New Orleans WorldrnFairs, financial catastrophes but neverthelessrnsuccesses, and it helps explainrnAtlanta’s obsession with the Olympics,rntoo. Besides, Scarlett’s hometown andrnthis quadrennial festival of commercialismrnand jingoism were made for eachrnNOVEMBER 1992/41rnrnrn