Baker v. Carr (1962). The Voting Rights Act of 1965 - Essay Example

xamines the underlying causes that preceded this historically important case that sought to ‘even the playing field’ for all citizens and review the immediate and enduring effects of the decision. Charles Baker, a Republican County Judge from Tennessee who resided in that state’s largest city, Memphis, along with a long list of plaintiffs, mostly from urban areas, including the mayor of Nashville, brought a complaint to the U.S. Federal Court in Tennessee in 1959 that would forever alter the way all states apportion their voting districts.

Though Baker was not the lone complainant, his name appears on the case because it was, by virtue of the alphabet, at the top of the list. Baker, et al. sued the Secretary of State of Tennessee Joe C. Carr, whose responsibilities included supervising the election process and enforcing the redistricting regulations in that state (Baker v. Carr, 1962). The issue and resolution went far beyond these two individuals for whom the case is known. Baker accurately alleged that the State of Tennessee had not drawn new redistricting borders in 60 years (since 1900) which was in violation of the Tennessee Constitution which mandated that new voting districts be drawn every 10 years.

Redistricting following each ten-year census results, as the Founders intended, is done so as to better reflect population growth and decline in different areas of the state and assures fair and more equal government representation. The concern of the plaintiffs was that although more people now lived in cities rather than rural areas as was the case in 1900, the Tennessee legislature was still dominated by the rural population. “Baker lived in a district whose population had grown larger than some neighboring districts and by the time of the lawsuit, Shelby County, where Memphis is located, had 10 times the population as some of the rural districts of Tennessee.

Thus he claimed that Memphis was underrepresented” (Krakow, 2006). Baker, et al.