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FILE - Students and a member of the Zulu Tramps march to a campus polling place on Election Day at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

BATON ROUGE, La. – For nearly three decades, the small town of Mansfield was represented in Louisiana’s congressional delegation by white Republicans, even though its population is about 80% Black and leans heavily Democratic.

That changed with the election last year of U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields , a Black Democrat who was able to win after a newly drawn political map carved out a second Black majority congressional district in the state.

Mansfield Mayor Thomas Jones Jr. said he and others finally feel as if their communities are being rep

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