Detroit May Send No Black Representatives To Congress

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 26: U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) participates in a news conference at the U.S. Capitol October 26. Conyers faces stiff competition to keep his House seat in the 2012 Michigan congressional race. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Bloomberg:

Detroit’s population loss may leave Michigan without a black representative in Congress for the first time since 1955, a shift that would punctuate the erosion of African-American power in a region with a history of racial friction.

New boundaries pushed Detroit’s two congressional districts deeper into the suburbs because the city of 713,000 lost one- quarter of its population since 2000. As a result, U.S. representatives John Conyers Jr. and Hansen Clarke may be ousted by white Democratic challengers in districts where blacks are a smaller majority than before.

Read the whole story at Bloomberg