The consideration to reapportion the nine Council Districts in Jackson shifted from its original plan to approve new district boundaries during a special called meeting at Jackson City Hall, Tuesday.

“We heard from a redistricting lab from Tufts University (Boston) that presented an alternative plan, one that was developed by the (Jackson) Planning Department,” said Paul Taylor, Jackson City Councilman, “Actually they presented two plans that more equitably spreads potential voters across the city and really gave more equitable distribution of race across our city.

“We’ve seen with the 2020 Census we’re almost a 50/50 community now – we’re pretty much there.”

According to the 2020 Census, Jackson has 68,205 residents – 46 percent black, but 54.4 percent minority, overall.

“What Tufts did is, “How do we equitably distribute those and how do we make our (nine) districts more compact. We’re taking a real big step today.”

(PHOTO: Paul Taylor)