In 2023, the Vermilion Parish NAACP filed a lawsuit challenging the Abbeville, Louisiana, City Council to remedy its district map that denied its voters equal representation. This prompted Abbeville to file a new map that packed Black voters into one district. The Southern Poverty Law Center supplemented the lawsuit on behalf of the Vermilion Parish NAACP to block use of this new map.
The federal lawsuit describes how the council-approved redistricting map contains a district with almost a 70% Black voting-age population, in violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits racial gerrymandering — the use of race as the predominant factor in redistricting. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the council to draw a map that complies with federal law.
The complaint outlines how the Abbeville City Council knowingly enacted a map that dilutes the voting power of Black residents in District D, which includes members of the Vermilion Parish NAACP, the plaintiff, by packing them into one of four council districts.
The council rejected multiple compliant maps the Vermillion Parish NAACP and the SPLC presented before deciding to adopt its district map. On Sept. 16, 2025, the council voted 4-1 to approve a new district map, defying the 14th Amendment.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Lafayette Division.
