Republicans dismantled the only Galveston County commissioners precinct in which voters of color held political clout. It’s a major blow for Black and Hispanic voters who had been building political momentum.
Community activist Roxy Hall Williamson at a new mural commemorating Juneteenth in Galveston on April 4. Last November, a white Republican majority on the Galveston Countys commissioners court voted to redraw Precinct 3 boundaries, splitting Black and Hispanic voters into majority-white districts., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
The area stood as an exemplar of Black political power and progress. For 30 years, Black voters — with support from Hispanics — had amassed enough political clout to decide the county commissioner for Precinct 3, propelling Black leaders onto a majority white county commissioners court. They worked to gain stronger footholds in local governments, elevating Black people into city halls across the precinct.
An imposing 5,000-square-foot mural, completed just last year, depicts the long journey from slavery to freedom that runs through Galveston. Known locally as the Juneteenth mural, it covers the side of a building overlooking the spot from which a Union Army general issued the order in 1865 that led to freedom for a quarter-million enslaved Black people in Texas, among the last to be freed after the end of the Civil War.
Holmes — who is Black, the only Democrat on the commissioners court and the only one who is not white — said it’s impossible for him to win reelection when his term is up in 2024 given the new Republican map dissecting his precinct. He sees the effort not as an indictment of his public service but a repudiation of his constituents.
The events leading up to commissioners’ vote on the map had proved to be a bold exercise of Republican power wrangling.
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