Page 78 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

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to a long history of official discrimination in Texas . De jure educational segregation in Texas existed from the first year of Reconstruction until Brown v. Board of Education, and the end of legal segregation was met with a policy of official resistance to desegregation of public schools . The intervention of federal courts was often necessary in an effort to bring an end to continued segregation and widespread discrimination .29
According to the Census Bureau’s 2010-2012 American Community Survey (“ACS”), approximately 7 .6 percent of Anglo Texans lack a high school diploma or equivalent . That figure is five times higher for Hispanics (39 .5 percent) and nearly twice as high for Blacks (13 .4 percent) . This disparity continues into higher education: 58 percent of Black Texans do not have an undergraduate degree (as compared to 51 percent of Anglo Texans) .30
VI. Employment
Voters with higher levels of unemployment and lower incomes are less likely to participate in the political process . Evidence demonstrated that minorities face significant employment burdens in Texas .31 Racial discrimination in employment by Texas state or local agencies continues to disadvantage Black and Hispanic residents of Texas . In the last two decades, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Matagorda County, the City of El Paso, and the City of Houston have all entered into extensive consent decrees that required them to change their practices to address claims of employment discrimination .32
There was also expert testimony regarding the disparity in unemployment rates for Black and Anglos in Texas . Dr . Bazelon reported that the unemployment rate of Black Texans, for example, is more than twice the unemployment rate of Anglos .33 According to the Census Bureau’s 2010- 2012 American Community survey, the State of Texas has an unemployment rate of 8 .4 percent within the civilian labor force . The unemployment rate is 6 .7 percent for Anglos, 9 .2 percent for Hispanics, and 14 .1 percent for Blacks .34
The ability of minority voters to participate equally and effectively in the political process is a key element of the plaintiffs’ claim under the “discriminatory results” prong of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act . Black and Hispanic people in Texas with higher levels of unemployment and lower incomes are less likely to participate in the political process . Disparities between Anglos and minority voters in unemployment rates, and other socioeconomic indicators, make it more difficult for Hispanic and Black voters in Texas to overcome the increase in the cost of voting caused by the implementation of SB-14 .35
29 Id. ¶ 472.
30 Id. ¶ 474.
31 Id. ¶ 476 (citing U.S. Request for Judicial Notice ¶ 13).
32 Id. ¶ 475.
33 Id. ¶ 423 (citing ¶ 68 (Bazelon Second Am. Rep.)).
34 Id. ¶ 476.
35 Id. ¶ 476.
Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality