In the early 1990s, a furor erupted over attempts to carve out two or possibly three "majority-black" congressional districts in the state of Georgia. As the controversy mounted, all the usual charges and countercharges filled the air. When liberals argued that racial redistricting was necessary to make up for a long train of abuses, conservatives accused them of trying to create safe Democratic seats in an otherwise hostile South. When Republicans argued that such districts were a new form of racial segregation, Democrats shot back that it was a little late for Republicans to raise such an alarm.