It took a federal court order to get the first black county-level official elected in Fayette County.
But that historic moment was upended last week with the death from cancer of 57-year-old Commissioner Pota Coston, after only six months in office. Now leaders in the predominately-white county find themselves in a political quandary: how to proceed in replacing the first black commissioner while fighting the court-order that led to her election in the first place.
Fayette’s voting system has long been a contentious one for the affluent southside county and as more black residents move in and seek public office, the issue has grown more strident. In August 2011, a group of black Fayette residents along with the NAACP sued the county saying its nearly 200-year-old practice of at-large voting violated the Voting Rights Act and kept blacks from serving on the school board and county commission.
County officials have repeatedly argued that the county’s small minority population made it impossible to create a mostly-black district and that a race-based district was, in itself, discriminatory. Blacks now account for about one in five Fayette residents.
A U.S. District Court judge ultimately ordered Fayette to create five districts - one of which would be mostly black. The county appealed, prompting the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year to send the case back to the lower court for trial. So far nearly $1 million has been spent by each side.
A trial date has not be set yet.
County elections board officials are fielding calls from potential candidates for Coston’s seat and from voters wanting to know when an election will be held for her replacement. They aren’t sure what to tell them. County leaders meanwhile are consulting attorneys about their options.
“We don’t have the ability to appoint someone,” County Manager Steve Rapson said. “It has to be a special-called election but the details of how that will work is unclear, We don’t know if it’s district or at-large (voting) or which maps to use. We have to work all of that out.
Coston’s death has created consternation among many black residents who saw her election as a major step forward. They worry the all-white commission may use this chance to revert back to an election process that for decades made political aspirations in Fayette elusive for many blacks. Coston was elected last year using district voting, which replaced at-large voting, a system in use since Fayette’s founding in 1821.
The issue came to a head Thursday evening during the county commission meeting as residents - including Coston’s widower - urged the commission to stick with the district plan to elect Coston’s successor. Thursday’s meeting drew a packed crowd of mostly black residents there to protest any effort to use the county’s old elections process - at-large voting - to fill Coston’s seat. At-large voting allows residents to vote for candidates regardless of where they live in the county.
“The intent of district voting is to allow citizens to be represented and their voices to be heard,” Bernard Coston said. “In the short time that my wife held the position of commissioner, you could see that people were energized and they were looking forward to a bright future. As a citizen of Fayette County, I want us to continue to move forward.”
Coston’s rousing plea drew a standing ovation. At one point, the audience chanted “Do the Right Thing! Do the Right Thing!
The commissioners told the crowd they had not yet made a decision on how to proceed in filling the seat. They met in executive session to discuss their options.
“We’re in an extremely difficult situation,” Chairman Charles Oddo told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the end of the four and a half hour meeting. The commission is waiting until Tuesday’s board of elections meeting before making any decisions, Oddo said.
Meanwhile, the renewed fight is playing out against a backdrop of growing efforts throughout the South to discard remnants of the Old South.
Rep. Virgil Fludd, who lives in Fayette County, likened Fayette’s fight to his home state of South Carolina’s fight over the Confederate flag. South Carolina lawmakers voted this week to remove the flag from the state house.
“The at-large voting system has been proven time and time and time again to be discriminatory,” Fludd told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The only purpose for the rebel flag was to signal the southern states’ opposition to Brown v Board of Education. The only purpose today for an at-large voting system is to minimize or eliminate the opportunity for minorities to be elected to public office.”
Fludd criticized Fayette leaders’ continued efforts to fight the change. The suit is against the county commission, school board and board of elections.
“It’s the height of hypocrisy for people who confess to be fiscal conservatives to be so wasteful with taxpayer dollars,” Fludd said.
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