ALBANY — On Monday, Dec. 11, the ACLU Voting Rights Project, the Law Office of Bryan L. Sells, and the ACLU of Georgia will meet the Sumter County Board of Education in court on behalf of Mathis Wright Jr., a Sumter County voter, for discriminating against black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In 2014, the Sumter County Board of Education redrew its districts and Wright believes candidates favored by black voters would keep only a slim minority of the seats on the school board under the new plan. His law suit claims that the board’s actions violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits the government from depriving black voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice.
During the litigation, the federal district court in Albany had dismissed the case, ruling in favor of the Sumter County Board of Education, but that decision was reversed on July 28, 2016, by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ordered that the case proceed to trial.