Opinion ID: 773533
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: History of Official Discrimination and Its Effects

Text: 30 First, the abysmal reality of Mississippi's history of official discrimination regarding the right of African-Americans to register and to vote is evident in the record. Furthermore, the 1990 census data revealed that African-Americans in Mississippi are less educated, suffer from higher unemployment, earn lower incomes, and live in disparate conditions as compared to Mississippi's white citizens. Thus, the negative impact that the state's legacy of discrimination has made on the socioeconomic status of African-Americans is undeniable. 31 Absent an indication that these facts actually hamper the ability of minorities to participate, they are, however, insufficient to support a finding that minorities suffer from unequal access to Mississippi's political process. LULAC IV, 999 F.2d at 866. Thus, to support a favorable finding on these factors, Wilson bore the burden to demonstrate that the African-American citizens of Mississippi do not in fact participate to the same extent as other citizens. Id. 32 Wilson was unable to make this showing. In fact, his own expert, Dr. Lichtman, acknowledged that in recent years Mississippi's African-American and white citizens have maintained virtual parity in voter turnout. 1 While Wilson also argues that African-Americans in Mississippi experience disparate access to the state's political process, because of their depressed economic condition, he presented no evidence at trial to show that any prospective African-American candidate of choice has lost an election or was barred from running because of inadequate resources. In sum, the trial record is devoid of any supportive documentary evidence or testimony from lay witnesses whose personal experiences mirrored the contentions urged by Wilson. As such, the district court's finding adverse to Wilson is not clearly erroneous. 33