Black and Latino voters in Galveston County, Texas — the birthplace of Juneteenth — have long been denied a voice in county government, an unjust reality that perpetuates centuries of discrimination.
June 19, also known as Juneteenth, commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. Designated a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth serves as a reminder of the work advocates across the country have done to ensure equality in the U.S. — and as a reminder of the barriers that Black Americans still face.
It's been over 150 years since the first Juneteenth — and voters are still fighting for equality in Galveston.
Campaign Legal Center’s work in Galveston.
In October 2023, Campaign Legal Center and our partners won an important victory on behalf of Galveston voters: A federal judge ruled that Galveston County’s redistricting map, which denied Galveston’s Black and Latino voters the equal opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, violated Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA).
In an unprecedented and unfair twist, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, later affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, allowed the illegal county voting map — one that the federal judge deemed “mean-spirited” and “egregious” in his October 2023 ruling striking down the map — to remain in place for the 2024 election while it was being appealed.
This map did not allow Black and Latino voters, who comprise nearly half of the county’s population, to elect a representative of their choice in any of the county’s four districts.
In other words, Galveston County’s Black and Latino voters have been forced to vote under an illegal, discriminatory map that silences their voices.
The voters were allowed to continue to challenge Galveston’s 2021 map for intentional discrimination under the U.S. Constitution, which remains pending today.
In May 2024, the entire Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in the case, and disappointingly ruled that Black and Latino voters could not sue as a coalition district under the VRA.
Coalition districts ensure that voters from different marginalized groups who live in the same area, have similar interests, face a shared history of past and present-day discrimination, and form a majority within the district can still elect candidates who best serve their communities.
When voters of color in a coalition district sue for fair representation under the VRA — as Black and Latino voters did in Galveston — this is called a “coalition claim.” These claims were consistently upheld as fair game by the Fifth Circuit for 40 years before the Fifth Circuit decided to overturn itself.
However, this latest ruling guts a key component of the VRA by refusing to let groups bring forth coalition claims.
What’s next in the federal case?
Now, Campaign Legal Center awaits a ruling from the district court in Texas to determine whether or not the current map is a result of intentional discrimination or racial gerrymandering.
Voters of color, regardless of whether they suffer discrimination together, may still make claims that they have suffered from intentional racial discrimination or racial gerrymandering by the enactment of a map.
Here, Galveston’s Black and Latino voters were intentionally robbed of the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice in Galveston’s Commissioners Court in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments.
What’s going on with Galveston County’s 2026 maps?
While awaiting a decision on the 2021 maps, the county passed new maps in 2026.
But this happened after voters had already voted under the original maps in primary elections earlier in the year. So, Campaign Legal Center and UCLA Voting Rights Project filed another lawsuit, this time challenging the new maps, arguing that the passage of these new maps mid-election season violates the Texas Constitution, United States Constitution, and Texas Election Code.
160 years after Juneteenth, when over 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were informed of their freedom by the Union Army, Black and Latino voters in Galveston are still fighting for an equal voice in our democracy.
This much is clear: After centuries of discrimination and decades of documented racial discrimination in voting, Galveston County’s Black and Latino voters deserve an opportunity to make their voices heard in county government.