In October of 2019, voters in the southeastern portion of East Baton Rouge Parish—which includes Baton Rouge—voted to create a separate city named St. George after a petition drive put the proposition on the ballot.
Over 14,000 signatures were verified by the parish Registrar of Voters which is roughly 1,500 more than the 12,996 needed to meet the 25% threshold to put the proposition on the ballot.
To collect these signatures, the organizers of St. George mobilized a subtle campaign of fear-motivated politics of another era against Baton Rouge, its schools, its people and most importantly its future.
St. George organizers failed to garner enough signatures to make it to the ballot on their first attempt and in refining the petition for a round two made the city even whiter.
The proposed city is over 70% white and only 15% African American in a parish that is nearly evenly split.
To stop the creation of the St. George, the mayor and other plaintiffs must prove that the proposed city would harm the city-parish government.
St. George organizers have not shared any specific plans to govern their new city with Sherriff Sid Gautreaux or Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome according to their testimony in court proceedings.
Gautreaux testified “We’re not going to be the St. George Police Department,” after explaining that the proposed city would have to pay his office to receive services from deputies.
“What is your plan to stand up a city of 86,000 people?” Broome asked, “We need a plan to see that.”
This refusal to even attempt good governance for the residents of the proposed city is deeply unsettling and it is also telling about the lack of thoughtful intent in the conquest for St. George.
The movement for the city started with disgruntled parents seeking a new school district in the southeastern portion of the parish in 2012.
And its organizational aims expanded to accomplish their original aim of establishing a breakaway school district costing the 90% nonwhite East Baton Rouge Parish School System critical funding streams.
The proposed city of St. George is largely white.
The funniest part is that the creation of St. George does not guarantee a separate school district which would require a 2/3 vote of the Legislature and an affirmative statewide vote of the people.
Not only does the city not guarantee a school district, but it’s also not even required to create a school district.
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System holds the infamy of having one of the longest-standing desegregation orders in the country with it only being lifted in 2003.
The St. George organizers are a decade into their mean-spirited conquest against Baton Rouge for a city that wouldn’t exist without it.
As for Broome’s attempt to beat back the new city; Donald Hodge, St. George opponent and attorney says “There’s more than hope. I think there’s a whole legal basis for the court to find that the city is not viable.”
Charlie Stephens is a 21-year-old political communication junior from Baton Rouge.