Opinion ID: 773533
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Responsiveness

Text: 52 Moreover, to demonstrate the alleged lack of responsiveness by the Transportation or Public Service Commissioners to the needs of African-American citizens, Wilson merely stated that only 15% of Mississippi's Department of Transportation employees are African-Americans. He fails, however, to explain how this employment rate demonstrates that the office was not responding to the needs of the state's African-American citizens. And evidence of the percentage of African-Americans employed by Mississippi's Department of Transportation, standing alone, is insufficient to demonstrate a lack of responsiveness to the needs of the state's African-American citizens. See Clark II, 88 F.3d at 1400 (disagreeing with the district court's adjudication of responsiveness by counting members of county commissions and reasoning that [t]he number of minority members on county commissions is a poor barometer of the county's responsiveness to the needs of its [African-American] citizenry). Moreover, Northern District Transportation Commissioner Zack Stewart (Stewart) testified that in the fifteen years that he has held his office, there [has] never been any question regarding race before [the] commission. As Wilson proffered proof neither to contravene Stewart's testimony nor to elucidate his allegations of unresponsiveness, the district court was not erroneous in finding that this factor did not support his Section 2 complaint. See Westwego II, 946 F.2d at 1123 (The district court found that the plaintiffs had not adequately proved a lack of responsiveness, and after reviewing all of the evidence, we cannot say that the district court clearly erred in so finding.).