Voting in the South, Cynthia McKinney

Today the Supreme Court struck down the majority African American district that elected the young outspoken progressive black woman to be its representative in Washington D.C. This time around, Cynthia McKinney is battling for her political life in a majority white district. And, she’s running against three white males in a district that once elected House Speaker Newt Gingrich. McKinney told Pacifica’s Verna Avery Brown that she knows today’s election is a test of whether white voters in the South will cross the color line and support a black candidate. Representative Cynthia McKinney is one of three black Democrats in Georgia’s eleven-member delegation. The second District’s Sanford Bishop faces a similar challenge: his newly created district shrank from 52 percent black to 35 percent black and the two men vying for his seat are both white men. The 5th district is an exception. Representative John Lewis is running unopposed.