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The whitest part of Baton Rouge, the capital of the majority-Black state of Louisiana, is now the newly formed city of St. George. The state Supreme Court overturned lower court rulings, something supporters of the change are excited about, while others, including the Baton Rouge chapter of the NAACP, are calling it modern-day secession.
According WGXA, Norman Browning, the President of the Transitional District of St. Baton Rouge Parish.'
Well, here's what the NAACP had to say about all of this:
“The St. George plan poses significant risks to our education system, threatens the continuity of critical programs and challenges community representation. The creation of a new municipality introduces significant uncertainty about the allocation of funding for our schools, jeopardizing the cornerstone of our community's future: education.”
For the record, that decision was the culmination of a long battle between the new city's supporters and opponents, many of whom see the move as a microcosm of resort-siphoning colonization. Until now, the latter team has been winning this battle on the pitches.
Here is a little background on the topic mentioned by The lawyer:
Baton Rouge leaders led organizers of the St.
Baton Rouge leaders argued in their petition — and argued for years before the election — that the new city would financially cripple Baton Rouge's city-parish services and force layoffs by taking away about $48.3 million in annual tax revenue. income. They also argued that St George's proposed budget was inaccurate and would in fact operate at a deficit.
Twice the courts have sided with Baton Rouge and struck down the proposed city, once in 2022 when a district judge ruled that St. George could not operate on a balanced budget and was “unreasonable,” and again last year when the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that organizers of St. he hadn't followed state law to get on the ballot.
The fight for St. George predates the 2019 election by a decade — it first began as a movement to create a separate, independent school district before evolving over the course of several years into a full-fledged campaign to create a new city.
The organizers for St.
St. George has 68,000 residents, only about 12% of whom are black, so opponents argued that the integration proposal was essentially segregation by another name and inherently racist. The High Court decision does not really deal with whether or not the move is racist, the judges simply held that St George's organizers took the proper steps to integrate and that it would provide its residents with proper public services.
But the question remains: at what cost to other Baton Rouge residents?