Blurring racial lines in the Dallas City Council’s 14-1 election model

By David Wilfong, NDG Contributing Writer

For all its positive traits, Dallas has an underlying problem which has simmered — and occasionally erupted from time to time — throughout the city’s history. Race relations have always been an issue, and while that issue is not a heated as it was when Dallas earned the moniker “the City of Hate,” it is far from being put to rest. A big part of the struggle for Blacks in Dallas was gaining representation in local government.

The move to a 14-1 city council model (where 14 representatives are elected within their home district, and only a mayor is elected at-large) was seen as a significant step forward for the minority community in Dallas. For Black Dallas, the 1991 election was momentous, with four African-Americans taking seats on the Dallas City Council.

The upcoming elections are proving to be something of a follow-up to local elections in 2018; meaning there are a lot of new faces running and indications are there will be a bit of a shake-up in the local power structure. District 7, which was one of the original African-American seats in the 1991 restructuring (with Charlotte Mayes being the first representative), has a strong Latino candidate on the slate in Adam Bazaldua.

Bazaldua is running to unseat sitting Councilmember Kevin Felder, who has faced legal troubles with a recent arrest for allegedly leaving the scene of an accident. Bazaldua has garnered what appears to be a strong base of support and recently received some strong endorsements as well, making him a front-runner in the race. The possibility of his winning the election has some African-Americans asking if they are losing what was once considered a “safe Black seat.” Worries of gentrification also compound concerns for Blacks losing representation in the years to come.

The answer requires some perspective, setting aside the fact district lines were tweaked in 2011 and anyone living in a district can run for office.

Current African-American Councilmembers Casey Thomas and Carolyn King Arnold now occupy seats which were held by White representatives on the 1991 council. Districts 5 and 6, which were won by African-American candidates in 1991, are currently held by White and Latino councilmembers. The only two seats which were held by African-Americans in both 1991 and the current council are Districts 7 and 8. Both councils contained four African-American representatives, but they did not come from the same districts.

Also, in District 5, current Councilmember Rickey D. Callahan is not seeking reelection. That seat will return to minority representation as Latinos Jaime Resendez, and Ruth Torres join African-American Yolanda Williams on the ballot. Also of note is the race in North Dallas’ District 10, where African-American candidate DeDe Alexander is challenging incumbent Adam McGough along with Sirrano Baldeo. Alexander cited the congressional success of U.S. Rep. Colin Allred in what was perceived as a White district as part of her inspiration to run.

In the end, African-Americans could end up with more, or slightly fewer representatives at the horseshoe, depending on how these races play out. Latinos also stand to gain seats at the council, but there is undoubtedly solid grounds for that to happen as well. Latinos are growing as a percentage of the population, period. According to the Texas Tribune, Hispanics are set to become the largest population group in Texas by 2022. If the government is to represent the population, it can only be expected that Latinos in government will follow the population trend.

It is also worth remembering the shared paths Latinos and Blacks have walked together. Both were relegated to lower-class status for many years after the official end of slavery, but the example need not go that far back.

The effort to move Dallas to a 14-1 model was not an African-American effort alone. The 1991 election also brought Domingo Garcia (now president of the League of United Latin American Citizens or LULAC) and Chris Luna onto the council. Hispanics were heavily involved in the effort to bring the 14-1 council system to the city, joining African-American advocates every step of the way. In a 2010 Op-Ed, Garcia recalled the leaders of the protest movement celebrating together at a Mexican Restaurant in Oak Cliff when the decision to change the election model was announced.

Garcia’s seat is now held by White councilmember Scott Griggs (though that district’s lines have changed since then), who is among the slate of candidates currently running for mayor. There could be a White or Latino successor to that District depending on the election outcome. Luna’s seat is now held by Latino Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Medrano, who faces both White and Black challengers in the upcoming election.

There is another aspect which will continue to affect the racial makeup of city leadership over time. Neighborhoods are becoming more racially diverse. Younger African-Americans and Hispanics are becoming more likely to move into areas previously viewed as White. This trend was noticed as far back as the 90s.

“The number of households, both White and Black, living in integrated communities grew markedly between 1970 and 1980 and even faster between 1980 and 1990,” noted Ingrid Gould Ellen in a piece written for the Brookings Institute in 1997. “Most strikingly, the share of white residents living in overwhelmingly white census tracts — those in which blacks represent less than 1 percent of the total population — fell from 63 percent in 1970 to 36 percent in 1990.”

Writing for the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, authors Shannon Rieger and Jonathan Spader discovered this trend accelerated nationally for the period of 2000 through 2015, but caution part of it may be the temporary result of gentrification.

“While some of these neighborhoods may become stably integrated areas, it is not yet clear how many of the newly integrated neighborhoods will become stably integrated and how many will eventually become non-integrated areas,” the authors noted.

The 14-1 council design was heralded by both Blacks and Hispanics as being an improvement, and a stepping stone for getting more minority voices into government. But it has never provided a “safe seat.” Today there are four African-Americans and two Latinos on the council just as there was in the first 14-1 election of 1991, but their seats have shifted over time; and if the composition of candidates in the upcoming election is any indication, seats will continue to shift in the future.