In 1946 the Supreme Court ruled in Morgan v. Virginia that segregated travel on interstate buses was unconstitutional, thus sending the separate-but-equal doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) teetering.

In spite of the ruling, the states of the Old Confederacy refused to comply. In 1955 the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ruled in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company formerly overturned the practice, but did nothing to enforce the decision. Finally, in Boynton v Virginia (1960) the Supreme Court outlawed segregated waiting rooms and restaurants in terminals that served buses that crossed state lines. Taken together, these three rulings clearly overturned the Plessy case. Some places in the upper south complied with the rulings, but for the most part the south thumbed its noses at the Supreme Court as it had been doing since 1887, the end of Reconstruction.

As I demonstrate in previous essays, the “city” of Columbus, Ohio and The Ohio State University are two peas in a decaying pod. (See references below.)The intertwined failings of the two disorganized, anti-constituent, private-profiteering, anti-public institutions are symbolically and practically encapsulated in the purposeless, falsely-named University District Organization. The UDO, as it calls itself (but does not pronounce out loud at least in my hearing), is the illegitimate creation of the two. It is  no more than an offense to members of both communities. 

For the first time, after more than a century, Columbus will vote for district candidates in November. But as activists have repeatedly argued, there’s nothing district about it. Candidates must live in one of the nine geographically designed districts as each has roughly 100,000 residents. However, the November 7 vote is citywide, and representation will remain “at-large.”

“If it were just my district to win I’d have a huge chance of winning,” said City Council candidate Adrienne Hood who’s running in District 4, which includes large swaths of the Northside, parts of Clintonville, North and South Linden, and also the street where undercover Columbus police shot and killed her son.

Last decade, three citizen-led initiatives sought true districts, also known as wards, through the ballot, but all lost. In 2016, Issue 1 was championed by the group Everyday People For Positive Change. They were soundly defeated by Columbus voters after a $1.1 million corporate-funded ad campaign by City officials.