Two distinct types of gerrymandering emerged on the American landscape. One was racial; the other, partisan. Both were lethal. Racial gerrymandering, especially after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, would lead the courts on a circuitous path of trying to discern how to ensure that minorities had the chance to elect representatives whose interest aligned with theirs while guarding against the “packing” of African Americans or Latinos in one or two isolated districts, which meant those congressional representatives were mere tokens who would have absolutely no influence in the larger halls
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