Democrats’ Strategy vs. Black Representation: The Root and IL-4

I rarely turn to The Root as a primary source for my blog, but this recent IG post caught my eye and led me down a worthwhile path. It aligns perfectly with something I’ve been meaning to explore: the ongoing battles over “majority-minority” districts and how recent court rulings are reshaping them.

The Root IG

District of Columbia Retrocession & Virginia Gerrymandering

 How about a history lesson? 

Up until the 1840s, the District of Columbia was a perfect square. The Washington, D.C. that we know about today lies within the state of Maryland, however, the city/county of Alexandria, Virginia was the other part of the square. In 1846, was the retrocession of the Alexandria area - the Virginia portion of D.C. back to the State of Virginia.

Here's a map I found on Reddit about what D.C. would've looked like if the Retrocession had never happened.

Via Reddit

You may want to know why is this being brought up?

Race and redistricting

You might have seen this during the course of the holidays on C-Span. It's presented here in its entirety as it's a little over an hour and a half. Talks about redistricting in terms of race in either congressional or state legislative districts around the nation.

You will see two Illinois legislators asking questions state Sen. Kwame Raoul who replaced Barack Obama when he became a US Senator and state Rep. Ken Dunkin.