As a pastor, I’ve spent my life standing up for Black neighborhoods, places where our strength is rooted in unity. That unity is now under attack.
Proposition 50, now before voters, would hand the power to draw congressional maps back to politicians. Every 10 years, district lines are redrawn to reflect population changes, a process known as redistricting.
More than a decade ago, Californians decided they should choose their politicians, not the other way around. They created the Citizens Redistricting Commission, a group of everyday residents who hold public hearings, gather community input, and draw fair maps in public view.
Proposition 50 would dismantle that transparent process and drag us back to the old days of gerrymandering, when politicians picked their voters and ignored communities that disagreed with their decisions.
Here’s what Proposition 50 would do to Sacramento’s communities: Black and Asian American neighborhoods such as Lemon Hill, Florin, Fruitridge, and Parkway would be torn from the city’s core and attached to sprawling, mostly white mountain districts stretching toward Nevada. These rural areas have little in common with Sacramento’s daily realities. When our neighborhoods are kept whole, we can speak with one voice for safer schools, affordable housing, and better healthcare.
But under Proposition 50, political insiders want to push Sacramento’s Black neighborhoods into agricultural districts with very different needs. They aren’t talking about how the maps would change — and they’re counting on us not to notice. If they succeed, our communities will lose their voice in Congress.
I know this fight firsthand. As a pastor and lifelong Stockton resident, I’ve spent years organizing Black communities to ensure our neighborhoods are seen and heard in the halls of power. When California voters created the Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2011, I joined other community leaders in showing up to testify, write letters, and rally others in Stockton’s overlooked neighborhoods.
Our effort paid off. For the first time in decades, Stockton’s Black community was kept whole in a single congressional district, giving us a stronger, unified voice in Washington. It showed what real fairness could look like when politicians weren’t in charge.
Now, Proposition 50 threatens to erase that progress. It would cost taxpayers nearly $300 million and let Sacramento insiders redraw California’s congressional districts for the next three elections — 2026, 2028, and 2030 — without real public input. Once politicians seize that power, don’t expect them to give it back to the people.
Supporters claim the measure will “save democracy.” You don’t save democracy by destroying it at home. Redrawing lines mid-decade will trigger a race to the bottom across the country, encouraging other states to gerrymander their districts and evade public accountability.
Our communities have come too far to go back to that. California’s independent redistricting system is the gold standard in fairness and transparency — the product of years of public testimony from people like us. We insist that our congressional representatives visit our communities, listen to our concerns, and fight for us. We respect rural California, but that’s not where we live, and we shouldn’t be lumped in with an agricultural district.
By voting No on Proposition 50, we can protect fair representation, defend the progress, and keep power where it belongs: with the people.
Bishop Dwight Earl Williams is founder and pastor/president of New Genesis Outreach Ministries and a longtime advocate for grassroots justice. He is the former head of the Republican Party of San Joaquin County. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Stockton staff and management.