Alabama, a voter ID state, and federal transportation officials have reached a deal after many driver’s license offices that mostly served African-American communities were found to be in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Alabama agreed to expand driver’s license office hours after the US Department of Transportation (DOT) launched an investigation into the closure or reduction of service of 31 part-time offices that were largely in the state’s Black Belt and impoverished rural communities. The announcement came on Wednesday after the DOT determined that the stoppages disproportionately affected black residents.
The closures were announced in September 2015, leading to a DOT investigation that concluded the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s (ALEA) plans would cause “a disparate and adverse impact on the basis of race, in violation of Title V” of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Hill reported.
Posted by The NON-Conformist
