An excerpt in the L.A. Times from Bill Boyarsky‘s Big Daddy: Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics touches on redistricting:
Unruh reached into the streets of South Central Los Angeles and, for the first time, brought substantial numbers of African Americans into power in the California legislature and Democratic Party. “Jesse genuinely believed that South Central Los Angeles ought to elect black officials,” said Leon Ralph, an African American who represented one of the assembly districts Unruh created in a reapportionment that increased chances of minority representation. “He genuinely believed that and put his money and power where he spoke.”
(See also Peter Schrag’s review.)
Read some of our histories mentioning Unruh in the context of redistricting in California here.
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