United States District Court. Southern District of Alabama.

Wiley L. Bolden et al v. City of Mobile et al, a lawsuit contesting the use of at-large city elections on grounds of black voter dilution, was filed June 1975. The lead plaintiff in the case, Wiley L. Bolden, was, along with John L. LeFlore, a founding member of both the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and its local successor, the Non-Partisan Voters League (NPVL). The NPVL launched this lawsuit as a means of obtaining equal political representation in city government, hiring as attorneys the law firm of Blacksher, Menefee, and Stein. The results of this eight-year suit changed Mobile's form of government from that of a three-man city commission to that of a mayor/council.