Standford Shepheard is a respected voice among a panel of elders seated on plastic buckets and milk crates in front of his garage in Alabaster. Shepheard, 72, and his friends are concerned, however, that their voices will no longer be heard by elected leaders in Alabaster. The reason: Residential developments have rapidly closed in on their small, historically black community off Simmsville Road.

Residential growth is making a lot of noise in Alabaster and all over Shelby County, attracting thousands of people — mostly white — to the area.

For the first time in 30 years, Alabaster and Shelby County do not have electoral districts with a majority of black voters, and local black leaders could lose seats in county and municipal elections this year.

"If you don't have nobody to represent you, you don't have a voice," said Walter Pierce, 70, who grew up with Shepheard in Shelby County. "This has always been a black neighborhood — forever. We still need black representation. Otherwise, we're sitting on the outside of all this progress."

The population in Alabaster grew from 7,079 to 22,619 between 1980 and 2000, an increase of 14,547 whites and 611 blacks. As of 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated blacks made up 9.9 percent of Alabaster and 7.3 percent of Shelby County, which is the state's fastest growing.

Shepheard said he remembers when Alabaster was "something like a ghost town:" a cafe and a garage on a dirt road.

While progress has been good to the people of Alabaster, he said he only wants to make sure that his neighborhood and other black neighborhoods are not left behind.

"Whites outnumber blacks, but the black and the white can live together — they can work together on the same job," he said. "That's the way its supposed to be."

Bobby Harris, a black councilman representing Alabaster's Ward 1 for the past 12 years, said he may not run in the upcoming election. In the 2000 election, Harris received 33 fewer votes than his white opponent, Tod Goode. But Harris kept his seat for a third term because 200 voters annexed into Ward 1 in 1999 had not been cleared by the Department of Justice in time for the election.

"The people are not here," Harris said. "It's sad. My heart is bursting because I'm passionate about what I do."

The justice department recently approved new electoral districts in the city and the county. The districts are redrawn after each census to reflect population change. New revisions to the electoral map have eliminated black majorities in Ward 1 in Alabaster and District 2 in Shelby County.

Under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, local governments cannot redraw electoral districts in a manner that would weaken minority voting power. The current situation in Alabaster and Shelby County are not cases of "retrogression," however, because it resulted from a demographic shift, said Robert Richie, executive director of Maryland's Center for Voting and Democracy.

Alabaster voluntarily drew Ward 1 with a black majority in 1980, but voters already had elected a black woman, Mayo Taylor, to the council in 1976, said City Administrator and former Councilman Jimmy Gould.

In 1992, Shelby County expanded its commission and created a black majority in District 2. The late George Dailey, Shelby County's first black commissioner, represented District 2 until his death last year.

Alabaster Councilman Henry Hines, who is white, represents Ward 2. He said the council made every effort to redraw district lines to include a majority black district, but it wasn't possible. Under state law, he said all of the districts must be within 5 percent of the mean population.

Hines said the white population has grown and the black population has spread out, making it impossible to maintain a minority ward in the city.

"We drew up a complete map with a minority ward," Hines said. "It was way out of proportion. We looked at everything. There are not a lot of alternatives."

Eric Womack, a senior planner with Shelby County, said county planners ran into similar problems redrawing Districts 1 and 2 in the county. Sizable black populations are separated throughout the county and could not be included together in a single district, he said.

The Alabama Democratic Conference successfully sued 180 state jurisdictions, including Shelby County, in the 1980s to win minority representation on city councils, county commissions and school boards. As a result of Dillard v. Crenshaw County et. al., black majority districts were created in jurisdictions all over the state. Some jurisdictions that were unable to create a minority district adopted alternative voting procedures that resulted in minority representation.

Harris and Dailey have both advocated alternatives to the current voting system in Alabaster and Shelby County, where voters can only choose from candidates in their home district or ward.

Both have said that candidates could be selected at large so the minority vote is not divided by district lines. Cumulative voting in an at-large election can concentrate minority voting power even more by giving voters one vote for each seat on the governing board. They can distribute votes among any number of candidates or give all of their votes to one candidate.

Chilton County and a few Alabama towns with small minority populations have maintained minority representation this way — but not without some controversy.

"The purpose was to put a minority on the board," Chilton County Clerk Sharon Sumerall said. "It has definitely served its purpose, but we've had people opposed to it from the start. They like the traditional one man, one vote."

Harris, who also asked the council to divide his ward into two smaller places, said the white majority should be more proactive in assuring diversity of elected leadership.

Earl Cunningham, appointed by Gov. Bob Riley to finish Dailey's term on the Shelby commission, is campaigning for a full term in District 2. He said he is satisfied with the voting system and the districts as they were redrawn in Shelby County. In this race, race should not be an issue, he said.

"Let the people decide," Cunningham said. "I believe we live in a progressive and enlightened age. You have to forget about this line drawn in the middle of the street. I don't see race. I see human beings."

Head count Population growth in Alabaster and Shelby County between 1990 and 2000.

Alabaster white population 1990; 2000 — 12,869; 19,839

Alabaster black population 1990; 2000 — 1,618; 2,250

Shelby County white population 1990; 2000 — 90,700; 128,671

Shelby County black population 1990; 2000 — 7,609; 10,606

Alabaster total population 1990; 2000 — 14,732; 22,619

Shelby County total population 1990; 2000 — 99,358; 143,293
Source: U.S. Census Bureau