By Garry Blanson
Concerning Voting Rights and Municipal Elections in Monroe, Louisiana”
As I am thinking about the City of Monroe and its present system of government, I pause for a moment and ponder about all of the current Black elected officials who hold “key positions” within the City of Monroe—the Black judges, the Black members of the Ouachita Parish Police Jury, the Black members of the Monroe City School Board, and the present Black members of the Monroe City Council, who are currently benefiting from “the landmark Ausberry vs. the City of Monroe class action lawsuit that single-handedly eradicated the old, antiquated three-person Commissioner Council system form of government, which white city officials had been using as a tool to dilute the votes of the Black citizens of Monroe, Louisiana!”
Although the decision in the case wasn’t handed down until August 9, 1978, “over 4 years after the lawsuit was originally filed,” on April 29, 1974, by Bennie Ausberry and Alfred Blakes, as a Class Action Lawsuit on behalf of all Black citizens of Monroe, Louisiana; after everything was said and done, the Federal Court sided in favor of Bennie Ausberry and Alfred Blakes!
Additionally, the Federal Court ruled that “the at-large voting scheme, which had been adopted by the white city officials, was unconstitutionally diluting the votes of its Black citizens!”
Even though almost “50 years” have passed since the filing of the original lawsuit and the subsequent 1978 court ruling, I feel that the citizens living in Monroe, Louisiana, today need to know about the significance of the lawsuit and how the Federal Court decision led to the elimination of the City of Monroe’s “at-large election system as well as its Commission Council form of government.”
You see, before 1979, the City of Monroe used a three-person Commission Council form of government, “instead of the Mayor-Council Home Rule Charter form of government that is used today in Monroe!”
By the way, it wasn’t until after “the 1978 Federal Court ruling on the Ausberry vs. the City of Monroe class action lawsuit” that the City of Monroe officially made the switch from the three-person Commission Council to the Mayor-City Council form of government.
In 1979, former Mayor Robert E. “Bob” Powell became Mayor of Monroe and oversaw the transition from the old three-person Commission Council to the improved and updated Mayor-Council form of government.
Well, those two Black pioneers, Bennie Ausberry and Alfred Blakes, have been long gone for some time now, but thankfully, history will not let us forget “the landmark Federal Court case of Ausberry vs. the City of Monroe, Louisiana” that they both initiated back in 1974!
