Cite as: 528 U. S. 320 (2000)
Opinion of Souter, J.
207a (Stipulations 181-196); App. 163-173 (declaration of Dr. Richard Engstrom). While acknowledging the somewhat limited data available for analysis, the expert concluded that "African American voters are likely to have a realistic opportunity to elect candidates of their choice to the . . . Board only in districts in which they constitute a majority of the voting age population." Id., at 174.6
Second, the Police Jury plan diluted black votes by dividing neighboring black communities with common interests in and around at least two of the Parish's municipalities, thereby avoiding the creation of a majority-black district.7 See id., at 154-156 (declaration of George J. Castille III); id., at 141 (testimony of S. P. Davis). Even the Board's own cartographer conceded that one of these instances " 'appear[ed]' " to constitute " 'fracturing,' " App. to Juris. Statement 191a (Stipulation 138), which he defined as "divid[ing] a 'population that has a traditional cohesiveness, lives in the same general area, [and] has a lot of commonalties' . . . with '[the] intent to . . . fracture that population into adjoining white districts,' " id., at 189a-190a (Stipulation 133).
6 The parties agreed that black candidates for other offices have been able to win from majority-white districts in the parish, see id., at 201a (Stipulation 180), but those instances all involved districts in which the presence of an Air Force base, see id., at 206a-207a (Stipulation 196), meant both that the effective percentage of black voters was considerably higher than the raw figures suggested and, in the view of all the successful black candidates, that the degree of hostility to black candidates among white voters was lower than in the rest of the parish, see App. 131-132 (statement of Jeff Darby), 133-134 (statement of Jerome Darby), 143-144 (statement of Johnny Gipson).
7 Counsel for the Board suggested in cross-examining one of the Government's experts that one of the instances of dividing black communities arose from a state-law prohibition on the Board's "split[ting] existing corporate lines." 2 Tr. 189. He offered no authority for that proposition. But in any case, the example the expert gave did not involve dividing a municipality, but including in a single district areas both within the municipality and outside it.
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