By Megan Ashley Fink

NATCHEZ — Natchez aldermen adopted the proposed redistricting plan for the six aldermen wards in a 4-2 vote Tuesday night.

The new lines will not take immediate effect, but will be effective before the aldermen election in May 2016.

City Attorney Hyde Carby said the city was obligated to redistrict the wards after the 2010 census by the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and he is confident that this plan satisfies that law. The current ward lines are based on the 2000 census.

Former mayor Phillip West, along with former Adams County Justice Court Judge Mary Lee Toles, the Rev. Clifton Marvel and Jacqueline Marsaw, both with the local chapter of the NAACP, filed a lawsuit against the city in May that alleges unequal racial distribution in the drawing of Natchez’s six aldermen ward district lines.

West and Marsaw were both in attendance at the meeting Tuesday night. They indicated to the board they were familiar with the plan, but gave no expression of approval or disproval.

“I am only here to witness whatever action the board chooses to take,” West said.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis, Ward 2 Alderman Rickey Gray, Ward 4 Alderman Tony Fields, and Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard voted in favor of the proposed ward boundaries.

Fields said he wishes the borders adopted Tuesday had been adopted in 2011, when the city first attempted to redraw the ward lines based on the 2011 census. That plan was denied by the U.S. Department of Justice, leaving ward lines unchanged.

The law has since changed, no longer requiring the DOJ to review the city’s ward boundary plan.

The Rev. Clifton Marvel attended the public hearing Nov. 16 during which the proposed ward line changes were presented. He said that the NAACP would be providing an opinion of the plan to the board.

Gray said he had spoken to several NAACP members, including Marvel.

“They seemed to be satisfied,” Gray said.

Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Smith and Ward 5 Alderman Mark Fortenbery voted against the proposed redistricting lines.

Smith said that she didn’t feel any redistricting was necessary because the board was racially balanced.

In the proposed plan, the black voting population increases the most in Ward 5, currently represented by Fortenbery, a white alderman.

“I really felt we had a picture-perfect ward,” Fortenbery said. “I didn’t think (the redistricting plan) needed to be done.”

Fortenbery said even though his ward will be 65-percent black at the next election, he hopes to retain his seat.

“It’s my ward, and I’ll fight for it,” Fortenbery said.

Under the current ward lines, blacks represent 57.5 percent of the total population in Ward 5. Under the new plan, blacks would have a 65-percent representation.

Voting age population in Ward 5, under the new plan, would increase from 52.5 percent to 60 percent.

While the black vote strengthened under the proposed plan in Ward 5, it decreased in others.

Total black population in Ward 2 went from 97.6 percent to 89.8 percent. Voting age population shifted from 97.6 percent to 88.6 percent.

Ward 4 showed a decrease in total black population from 73.2 percent to 71.8 percent, and voting age population dropped from 69.7 percent to 68.3 percent.

Ward 6 showed a drop from 36.6 percent to 28.7 percent for total black population, and the voting age population decreased from 31.6 percent to 25.2 percent.

Wards 1 and 3 were left relatively unchanged.

Under the current ward lines and the proposed plan, blacks have the majority vote in wards 1, 2, 4 and 5.

If the 2020 census is significantly different from the 2010 census on which the new ward lines were based, the board would have to adopt a new plan at that time.

Mayor Butch Brown said the board may not have to redo the lines in 2020, depending on the census findings.

“This will carry us for another 10 years or more, who knows,” Brown said.