When a federal judge ruled that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors violated the civil rights of Latinos in drawing district boundaries in 1981, he also found that there had been a "long and painful" history of official discrimination against Latinos.
"The court finds that Hispanic residents in Los Angeles County have suffered and continue to suffer from the lingering effects of discrimination," U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon wrote in his 131-page decision.
He noted that Latinos in the early part of the century could not use public swimming pools, except the day before the pools were cleaned; in the 1920s Latinos had separate high school graduation ceremonies from Anglos, and into the 1960s Latinos were subjected to English literacy requirements for voting.
An attorney for one of the plaintiffs--the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund--said the effects of past discrimination are reflected today in disparities that exist between Latinos and other groups in such areas as education, employment and housing. The disparities exist in part because of the exclusion of Latinos from the political process, the very thing the lawsuit sought to remedy, said MALDEF lawyer Richard Fajardo.
Kenyon last month ruled that county supervisors divided Latino neighborhoods among three districts, thereby diluting their voting strength in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Latinos account for about one-third of the county's 8 1/2 million residents. But no Latino has ever served on the powerful five-member county board, which controls a $10-billion budget, larger than that of 42 states.
The county is appealing the ruling. The supervisors have denied that they discriminated against Latinos. And, county attorneys have contended that it was not possible for the supervisors to create a district in which a majority of the voters are Latino, because many Latinos are not citizens or old enough to vote.
The case has been as much a history lesson as a legal and political dispute.
The plaintiffs--the U.S. Justice Department, MALDEF and the American Civil Liberties Union--had to prove that the 1981 redistricting denied Latinos an equal opportunity to participate in the political process.
A history of discrimination is one of the factors that can be used to prove a violation of the voting rights law, the attorneys said. The law was passed in 1965 after anti-black gerrymandering in the Deep South.
