On August 22, 2016, U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel ruled in favor of the Missouri NAACP and the ACLU in their lawsuit against the Ferguson-Florissant School District. The NAACP claimed that the school district violated the Voting Rights Act by holding at-large elections that effectively discriminated against African-Americans; in his ruling, Judge Sippel asserted that “the cumulative effects of historical discrimination, current political practices, and the socioeconomic conditions present in the district impact the ability of African Americans in FFSD to participate equally in Board elections” (see PDF of the full decision via ACLU, p. 117).

Colin Gordon, a member of our Deconstructing Ferguson working group, served as expert witness for the case, testifying to a century’s worth of practices that excluded African Americans from civic participation and representation.

You can find press coverage of the court’s decision here.