Witness challenges Black Belt, Mobile ‘community of interest’ in Alabama redistricting case

by Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector
February 21, 2025

BIRMINGHAM — A witness for the Alabama attorney general’s office said historic racism might play a role but isn’t the only factor in achievement gaps between demographics in a trial over the state’s congressional map on Friday.

Kentucky State University political science professor Wilfred Reilly, who authored three books criticizing progressive politics, suggested historical racism does not mean Mobile and the Black Belt can be considered the same community of interest today. 

“There’s some relationship [between Mobile and a Black Belt county] … The relationship is lesser than the relationship between Mobile County and Baldwin County,” Reilly said.

His testimony was met with skepticism from attorneys for plaintiffs seeking to preserve a 2023 congressional map that created one majority-Black Alabama congressional district and one near-majority one in the interest of ensuring adequate representation for Black Alabamians. 

“None of your papers focus specifically on the political environment below the Mason-Dixon Line. Correct?” Brittany Carter, an attorney for the plaintiffs, asked.

He said “not as a primary focus.”

“You’re not a professional expert on Southern politics, correct?” Carter asked. He said “no.”

She then asked if any of his academic research focused on Alabama politics, to which he also said “is correct.”

The attorneys questioned his expertise in redistricting and community identity. Under cross-examination, Reilly said he had not conducted extensive research on Alabama’s redistricting history or specific state policies.

“I don’t hold myself out as an expert on redistricting,” he said.

The plaintiffs’ counsel also pressed him on his methodology, pointing out that his report did not incorporate widely accepted academic definitions of communities of interest. When asked whether he had reviewed Alabama’s redistricting guidelines before his deposition, he said, “that is correct.”

Reilly’s testimony came near the end of a two-week trial over the state’s congressional maps. The maps were put in place by a three-judge federal panel after an almost two-year battle that went to the U.S. Supreme Court twice. 

The courts ruled that racially polarized voting patterns in Alabama — where white Alabamians tend to vote for Republicans and Black Alabamians tend to vote for Democrats — meant that a 2021 congressional map approved by the Legislature prevented Black Alabamians, who make up about 27% of the population in the state, from meaningfully participating in the election process.

The court ordered the creation of a second majority-Black district “or something quite close to it,” and rejected a map from the Alabama Legislature, which they said failed to address Voting Rights Act violations.

Reilly’s testimony also addressed the concept of communities of interest, a key issue in the case. The plaintiffs argue that Mobile and the Black Belt, both home to significant Black populations, share common social and economic interests and should be linked in a congressional district. Reilly contended, however, that shared historical racial discrimination does not necessarily mean these regions constitute a single political community today.

Using labor and commuting data, Reilly said that Mobile County has closer economic and social ties to Baldwin County, a majority-white area, than to Black Belt counties.

“Well, 71% of the people who work in Mobile County live in Mobile County, prominently including the city of Mobile itself. About 13% live in neighboring Baldwin County,” Reilly said, adding that Black Belt counties each account for about 1% of people who work in Mobile.

But Baldwin County’s population is significantly higher than any county in the Black Belt. With about 253,500 residents, Baldwin County is about 17 times more populous than Washington County, which borders northern Mobile County and has a population of about 15,000.

They also questioned his data, including his reliance on non-peer-reviewed literature and publicly available real estate metrics, like the real estate website Zillow.

“You didn’t rely on any peer-reviewed studies concerning the identification of communities of interest, correct?” Carter asked.

The trial is expected to conclude next week.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

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