On Tuesday, August 25, 2020, multiple cities across Jefferson County, Alabama, held their municipal elections. Voters in vital economic centers such as Hoover, Homewood, Irondale, and Vestavia Hills all went to the polls to choose who would lead the further development of their city for the next four years. But no city in Jefferson County had an election quite like that of Pleasant Grove. What happened in Pleasant Grove on this election day was historic—the city elected its first Black city council members. The election marked the victory of four Black councilors—Kevin Dunn, Yolanda Lawson, Eric Calhoun, and Ray Lassiter. This milestone was achieved partly due to a lawsuit filed in 2018 by the NAACP. This lawsuit alleged that Pleasant Grove’s at-large voting system was racially discriminatory and was the reason why a city that had a population that was majority African American, had never elected a Black city councilor. The lawsuit succeeded, and an agreement was reached between the NAACP and the City of Pleasant Grove that resulted in a new voting system: voters would be able to cast five votes, which could be spread across five different candidates, or all five votes could be used on one candidate. This, however, was not the first time that the history of Pleasant Grove had been altered by a court decision.
Going back to 1969, the city decided to split off from the Jefferson County Schools System in an effort to avoid integration. This became a problem for the city when in 1971, United States District Court Judge Sam C. Pointer Jr. made a ruling that the Pleasant Grove City Schools System had to provide bussing for the Black children that had been drawn into the school district. The City of Pleasant Grove decided that they would refuse this court order, and Judge Pointer made another ruling, deciding to eliminate Pleasant Grove’s independent school system and place the Pleasant Grove schools back under the jurisdiction of the Jefferson County School System. This court case would lay the groundwork for Pleasant Grove’s demographic shifts, as the city that once refused to integrate its schools, now has a school system which is comprised of more than eighty-percent Black children.
Pleasant Grove would again find itself in a court battle over racial discrimination in 1987. After having denied annexation requests by majority-Black neighborhoods in 1971 and 1979, the city decided to annex a parcel of land in 1987 that was mostly inhabited by white residents. At this time, annexation efforts by cities in Alabama had to go before the Department of Justice. In this instance, the Department of Justice denied the annexation request because it would further dilute the voting power of Black residents within the city. Pleasant Grove would appeal this decision all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), which would ultimately agree with the Department of Justice. The SCOTUS ruling states, “The city has a long history of racial discrimination. Suffice it to say that in housing, zoning, hiring, and school policies appellant’s officials have shown unambiguous opposition to racial integration, both before and after the passage of the federal civil rights laws.” Still, the fight for equity is not over within the city. Pleasant Grove, according to the last Census, is around sixty-five percent Black, and yet the city still did not elect a Black mayor in the elections taken that same year. In 2025, be on the lookout to see if Pleasant Grove can once again make history.
Photo Caption: Pleasant Grove has long been at the center of the civil rights movement. [Photo courtesy WVTM 13]
Additional resources
- Beahm , Anna. “Pleasant Grove’s Story of Difficult Change.” AL.Com, 30 July 2019, www.al.com/news/2019/07/pleasant-grove-a-story-of-change-at-the-hand-of-mother-nature-and-the-judges-gavel.html.
- Beahm, Anna. “Pleasant Grove Lawsuit Accomplished Its Diversity Goal, Attorney Says.” AL.Com, 27 Aug. 2020, www.al.com/news/2020/08/pleasant-grove-lawsuit-accomplished-its-diversity-goal-attorney-says.html.
- Legal Defense Fund. “LDF Files Complaint against Pleasant Grove, Alabama over Voting Rights Act Violations.” Naacpldf.Org, 13 Dec. 2018, www.naacpldf.org/press-release/ldf-files-complaint-pleasant-grove-alabama-voting-rights-act-violations/.
- WVTM 13. NAACP files lawsuit against Pleasant Grove mayor, city council. 14 Dec. 2018. Wvtm13.Com, https://www.wvtm13.com/article/naacp-files-lawsuit-against-pleasant-grove-mayor-city-council/25590394.
About the author
Stephen Anthony is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and a Master’s in Public Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also serves in the Mayor’s Office as a Policy Analyst in the Division of Social Justice and Racial Equity at the City of Birmingham.
