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But the plan they unveiled this week would have cut a large number of Black voters out of a district that elected Charlie Dooley, the county’s first Black councilman and Black county executive, and Hazel Erby, the first Black councilwoman.

The Democrats’ proposed map would move the cities of Ferguson, Jennings and Berkeley from the majority-Black 1st District into a 2nd District that would stretch from part of Chesterfield to the border with the city of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. It would turn the 1st District, with the additions of Clayton and other cities, from a 75% Black majority bloc to a 40% Black minority. The district’s non-white population, also including Hispanic, Asian and Native residents, would be 54%; white residents would make up 46% of the district.

The plan, published Tuesday, would significantly change the district ahead of the 2022 election: Erby’s successor, Council Chair Rita Heard Days, is running for a full four-year term. Her Democratic challenger, Terry Wilson, a Jennings councilman, would be drawn out of the district.

It might never come to be, though. The 14-member Bipartisan Reapportionment Commission, which includes a Democrat and Republican from each of the council’s seven districts, needs nine votes for any map to become final. The last time that happened was 1971.

Still, some Black ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County officials slammed the Democrats’ opening salvo as one that diluted Black representation in the county. Federal civil rights laws forbid redistricting commissioners from drawing lines that make it less likely a non-white racial or ethnic group can elect someone of their background.

“Preliminary maps speak volumes, and that’s not a message that I wanted to hear,� said Rep. Kevin Windham, D-Uplands Park. He said the plan was “racial gerrymandering,� and that Democrats’ proposal “just needs to be scrapped.�

Windham and other officials expressed surprise that Democrats on the Bipartisan Reapportionment Commission would propose such a change, because John Bowman, president of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County NAACP, is the Democratic chair.

“We need to know where that map came from and why it came to be,� Windham said.

Bowman, in response, said the “the first draft map was, just what it is, a first draft.�

Democrats were expected to meet Wednesday night to start revising it, he said.

“I mentioned that out of the gate that I would in no way be able to support a map that was going to take away from majority-minority districts,� Bowman said. “There is no way I could support a map like that.�

Asked how the rough draft came to be, Bowman said the commission was scrambling to meet a Nov. 28 deadline and that most municipalities in the north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County are smaller geographically and split across three council districts, making it harder to keep cities intact.

“That was never going to be the final map, I tell you that,� he said.

Rep. Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, said it was “absurd� Democrats would have “drafted and published such a map in the first place.�

“To take the 2nd district and slice the area in half like the current ‘draft’ proposes would be marginalizing,� Proudie said in a written statement. “I would be profoundly disappointed if the chair of the commission, who is the President of the County’s NAACP branch, (sic) to sit and allow such a blatant and obvious attempt at disenfranchisement take place.�

Days said she had not seen the Democrats’ proposal “in detail� and would let the redistricting process play out. But, she also accused County Executive Sam Page of pushing the current proposal to try to interfere with her reelection prospects.

“I think clearly that this is a map that he has proposed. ... I don’t think there’s any secret about it that this might be a way to dilute my support or dilute my base, if you will,� she said.

“But I think I can win this district, and I can win the old district, and so that’s the way I’m going to over forward with this.�

Page spokesman Doug Moore denied any involvement by the county executive, other than appointing commissioners as prescribed by the county charter.

“I hope the councilwoman takes her concerns to the reapportionment commission; it’s an independent body that is still working through the process,� Moore said. “Redistricting always creates anxiety among elected officials, and I’m sure the commission will work it out.�

Wilson said he had also received calls from residents in Ferguson and Jennings “concerned about being pushed out of the 1st County Council District and moving into unfamiliar territory.�

But he assured them it was a draft and was “confident things will work out how they should.�

“I think the draft was based off a theory and not necessarily what’s best for the community, and so I think more thought will be put into that,� Wilson said.

Population shift

Unlike the Democrats, Republican redistricting commissioners have proposed a map that made only slight changes to current council lines, drawn in 2011. Their current draft would preserve a Black majority in the 1st District, though it would have reduced the majority to 69%.

Both maps were an attempt to account for a slight population shift: the county’s population grew by half a percent — roughly 5,700 people — over 2010. But majority-Black, majority-Democratic 1st and 4th districts in north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County were the only two districts to lose population.

The 1st District experienced the greatest change, counting 14,955 fewer residents than in 2020; it is now the least-populated district at 128,072 residents. The 4th District has 138,188 residents.

The other five districts each have at least 140,000 residents. The most populated, the Republican-held 3rd District in west ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County, has 149,509 residents.

By law, the commissioners are required to get as close to the target number — one-seventh of the county’s population — of 143,446 residents in each district.

Windham and Wilson questioned why Democrats didn’t produce a map more similar to the Republican version.

“Surprisingly, the Republican map looked like I assumed it would look,� Wilson said.

“Population was lost, but I don’t think it was a huge significant loss to where we would really have to change the districts entirely.�

Dooley, who represented the district from 1994 to 2003, said he had not seen the proposal and declined to comment.