A federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union contends that school board elections in Ferguson, Mo., use a system that keeps black residents “all but locked out of the political process.”
The suit seeks to end the Ferguson-Florissant board’s use of an at-large voting system, claiming it violates the federal Voting Rights Act’s ban on racial discrimination in voting. Although the district’s student population is nearly 75 percent black, six of the seven school board members are white.
Ferguson is the site of the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer, which ignited widespread protests and a debate about the treatment of minorities by police departments nationwide.
