Miami, Fla. – Nearly a year after the City of Miami split Coconut Grove into three districts and placed most African American residents in a heavily Hispanic population, weakening their votes, the city drew its first lawsuit challenging the newly drawn redistricting map.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida and Dechert LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of Grove Rights and Community Equity (GRACE), Engage Miami, and the South Dade and Miami-Dade NAACP branches.

The action filed in federal court claims the redistricting map amounts to racial gerrymandering, dividing neighborhoods along racial lines and placing Black and Hispanic voters into particular districts.

The plaintiffs allege that city commissioners’ overriding goal in drawing the map was to separate racial groups into different districts as much as possible, far beyond what the Voting Rights Act requires.

"The packing of Black voters into District 5, and of Hispanic voters into Districts 1, 3, and 4, is unconstitutional and diminishes those voters’ influence in adjacent districts," the lawsuit states. "This racial gerrymandering does not advance representation and cannot be justified by compliance with the Voting Rights Act or another compelling interest."

Since 2010, the Coconut Grove district has been overpopulated compared to the city’s other districts, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

Commissioners in May 2022 were forced to redraw their districts to comply with the Census, prevent political gerrymandering and give residents equal representation under the federal rights act.

In dividing Coconut Grove into three districts, the West Black Grove, named after Bahamians who were the first settlers in the City of Miami before it incorporated in 1896, was placed in Miami Commission Vice Chair Joe Carollo’s District 3, where 82 percent of the residents are Hispanic.

Another portion of Coconut Grove remained in District 4, which is represented by Commissioner Manolo Reyes.

The other portion was placed in District 2, in the newly drawn political map. Ken Russell represented the district before he was forced to resign last year when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress. Commissioners on Sunday decided to hold a special election next month to fill the vacancy.

Black residents, including the community’s homeowner associations, who maintain that the redistricting represents racial gerrymandering by moving the African American votes into a voting district dominated by Hispanic voters, rallied outside City Hall for days protesting the new map.

Their last chance was hoping Mayor Francis Suarez would veto the map. But to no avail.

Nicholas Warren, an attorney with the ACLU of Florida, said the map violates Miamians’ rights to equal protection under the law enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment.

“City Commissioners have abused their power to draw unfair maps that treat Black and Hispanic voters as pawns in a power game rather than constituents to be served," Warren said. "This lawsuit is a chance to right this wrong and enact meaningful representation for all Miami.”

Coconut Grove, Little Havana, Allapattah, Shenandoah, Silver Bluff, Flagami, Omni/Downtown, Overtown and Brickell are some of the neighborhoods split for this purpose, he said.

Daniella Pierre, president of the Miami-Dade Branch of the NAACP, said the commissioners packed Black voters into a single district, diminishing Black voices in surrounding districts and ignoring communities elsewhere in the city.

“That tactic doesn’t further Black representation, it diminishes it," Pierre said. "We are suing because it’s illegal and wrong.”

Dwight Bullard, president of the South Dade NAACP, said the new political map was an affront to the Black community and votes.

“A commission that views neighbors as ‘sirloin’ and ‘bone’ to be carved up along racial lines cannot be entrusted with the map drawing pen,” said Bullard, a former state senator. “We won’t stop fighting until this gerrymander gets thrown out and replaced with a fair map that treats us like constituents, not cuts of meat.”

Yanelis Valdes, Engage Miami’s director of Advocacy and Organizing and an individual plaintiff in the case, said residents’ entreaties fell on deaf ears.

“Miami residents showed up and spoke out against gerrymandered maps, but our elected officials refused to listen,” said Valdes. “Now, we are going to court because Miami deserves better than this racially gerrymandered map that slices through communities and denies representation.”

In a statement to the South Florida Times, Miguel de Grandy, a city official overseeing redrawing the commissioners’ districts, said the commission’s directive to maintain the core of existing districts — a well-rec-ognized and judicially accepted traditional redistricting principle — was the main driver in the creation of the adopted plan.

"The districts in the adopted plan are relatively compact and join politically cohesive communities in a city where significant voting polarization exists between the different protected classes under the Voting Rights Act," he said. "Race and ethnicity were only considered to the extent necessary to comply with the Voting Rights Act."

Said Miami City Attorney Victoria Mendez: "We look forward to addressing the allegations in court."

Commission Chairwoman Christine King, who is African American and was the swing vote for the redistricting map, said through a text that she cannot comment at this time.