SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
In the nationwide redistricting battle spurred by President Trump, Missouri was the second Republican-led state to redraw its congressional map. Now some residents are worried the new map has also redrawn a historic racial dividing line. Celisa Calacal has this story. She's from KCUR.
CELISA CALACAL, BYLINE: Redistricting in Missouri focused specifically on Kansas City and carving it into three different districts. But to really understand how this battle is impacting Kansas City, we have to go back nearly 100 years to a street called Troost Avenue.
CARMALETTA WILLIAMS: Troost is a serious dividing line racially in this city. It's a place that used to house enslaved people, people owned people along Troost.
CALACAL: That's Carmaletta Williams, executive director of the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City. It's a nonprofit museum that documents African American history in the area. For decades, the avenue that runs north to south has been marked by segregation. Most resources and money flowed to downtown Kansas City. Majority-Black neighborhoods often received the shorter end of the stick.
WILLIAMS: It became the dividing line for redlining, to separate people by race - Black folks on the East Side and white folks on the West Side.
CALACAL: The goal of the national redistricting battle that President Trump started this summer was to shore up the Republican majority in the U.S. House ahead of next year's midterms. Missouri answered the call in September by redrawing the 5th district. Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II has represented that district, which has included both sides of Troost, for 20 years.
I'm standing on Troost Avenue right now. This entire street used to be inside the 5th District, but in the new map, it's used as a dividing line. To my right across the street is the new 4th District. Where I'm standing right now on the eastern side of the street is the new 5th District, where majority-Black neighborhoods are lumped together with whiter, more rural communities in middle Missouri.
EMANUEL CLEAVER II: With the new lines, yeah, it could, you know, open old wounds and, you know, become that dividing line again.
CALACAL: Emmanuel Cleaver III is Congressman Cleaver's son. He's a pastor at a Methodist Church a few blocks east of Troost.
EMANUEL CLEAVER III: I think what you'll have are competing voices within the district. And so those dollars and those opportunities that were once brought to Kansas City, especially east of Troost, will have to be divided.
CALACAL: Missouri Republicans said the new maps better reflect the state's conservative values. Nathan Willett, a city council member who represents a more conservative area of Kansas City, was the only council member who did not oppose redistricting efforts.
NATHAN WILLETT: Kansas City should not be telling Jefferson City how to draw maps when we don't draw our maps well ourselves.
CALACAL: He also said Missourians are better served by current speaker of the House Mike Johnson, over Democratic leaders like Hakeem Jeffries.
WILLETT: That's not the direction that I believe Missouri or people across the state would like to see in control of Congress.
CALACAL: There are several lawsuits against the new map, and signatures are being gathered to challenge it in a statewide vote next year. For NPR News, I'm Celisa Calacal in Kansas City.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.