GREENBELT, Maryland (AP) — In the racially diverse Washington suburb of Greenbelt, the term "progressive" is a badge of honour. But the city that began as a New Deal-era cooperative and overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama has never had a minority serve on its council in its 71-year history.

The gap has drawn the attention of the US Justice Department and civil rights activists and is remarkable for Prince George's County, well known for its middle- and upper-middle-class black communities.

But even some residents who see a problem don't blame racism. Rather, they describe a chasm between the older, central Greenbelt, which is still mostly white and politically active, and the newer, outlying neighbourhoods, where most of the city's minorities live and vote less often in city elections.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and the county NAACP suggest that Greenbelt's at-large election system — in which all residents can vote for all the seats — is to blame. They claim it dilutes the minority vote and discourages minority participation, which violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

They also contend that turnout is low in more diverse neighbourhoods because local elections don't coincide with state and federal races.

Some longtime residents bristle at suggestions that Greenbelt is unfair.

"Here are these outsiders who know nothing really about our community and the demographics and all of that, and they're telling us how we ought to act and want to change our government system," said 88-year-old Virginia Beauchamp, who has lived in Greenbelt since 1957 and said she participated in restaurant sit-ins in 1952 in Missouri.

"It's all a great irony," said Cathy Knepper, author of a book about the city's legacy said of the current spotlight on Greenbelt. "It has always been liberal and considered left-wing, or even socialist."

City officials have not commented on the matter. But Mayor Judith Davis said in August that they were addressing concerns brought by the NAACP and ACLU, and would next deal with the Justice Department.

"A lot of us are very angry because we've been members of these organisations and contributed to them over the years," Beauchamp said of the ACLU and NAACP.

Old Greenbelt is where President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration established one of the nation's first planned cooperatives for low-income families who showed a willingness to participate in town activities. Today, it still includes the original development of townhouses and single-family homes, as well as an art deco-style town centre with local government offices, a cooperative grocery store and cafe.

The community was limited to white residents when it was first built during segregation. But by the late 1970s, new residential developments sprouted up in the outskirts, bringing more black, Hispanic and Asian-American residents.

As of the 2000 Census, Greenbelt's population was about 60 percent minority. But the city council has remained white.

Jeanette Gordy, who is black, was one of the first people to move into Greenbelt East, today a racially mixed neighbourhood of townhouses and condos. In the late 1970s, she launched an unsuccessful bid for the city council because she was frustrated at the lack of city services in her new neighbourhood.

Gordy, 67, said she doesn't view the city as unwelcoming to minority candidates, then or now. It takes work to break into politics, she said.

More than a decade after Gordy's run, a young black man named Council Nedd II hit the campaign trail in 1993. Now 39, Nedd is the bishop of the Diocese of the Chesapeake for the Episcopal Missionary Church and lives in Pennsylvania.

The former Greenbelt East resident recalled city recommendations that restricted campaign signs to certain spots in town and banned them in people's yards. That made it harder for a newcomer to gain name recognition to beat the Old Greenbelt establishment.

"I didn't necessarily think it was personal," Nedd said. "But they were definitely trying to protect their little cabal they had there."

Today, Greenbelt's five-member city council has some long-serving representatives, including one who has been in office for 27 years.

Yvonne Davis, a black resident, said she voted for the incumbents in last year's election because she recognised their names.

"You get the same people, so why even try?" the 49-year-old accountant said.

Davis lives in Springhill Lake, a neighbourhood separated from Old Greenbelt by an interstate highway and home to a transient population of minorities, immigrants and college students. Only two percent of its eligible voters cast local ballots last year, compared with almost 30 percent in Old Greenbelt.

Pamela Moody, a longtime black resident in Greenbelt East, said city leaders have not tried to engage residents outside of the city's core.

For instance, Moody, 60, can't enjoy a new farmer's market in town because it's held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. That's a time when she, like many black residents, is at church.

"I think what has to be redeemed," she said, "is how the community opens itself to embrace diversity."

Possible changes suggested by reform advocates include electing some or all council members by district or using choice voting, where voters rank their candidates by preference. The groups have also suggested Greenbelt change the year in which its local elections are held and work to boost voter registration and turnout.

Greenbelt considered changing its election method in 2002, after a council member raised the same concerns. But the elections board concluded change was not justified without an established history of failed minority candidacies.

But time may have caught up with Greenbelt, a city that Knepper said isn't as socially conscious as it thinks.

"Prince George's County is changing around them, and this is going to force changes in Greenbelt," Knepper said. "I think this is the beginning."