By Da’Quan Love and Ann Webb
RALEIGH – Once more, we need to remind our legislature of this truth: North Carolina’s voting districts don’t belong to politicians – they belong to the People. They are not just lines on a map; these electoral districts are how we as Americans have a voice in choosing our representatives.
Now, we the People have a chance to defeat the latest iteration of racist gerrymandering and move toward achieving fair voting maps.
Starting on June 16, our case of NC NAACP v. Berger will go to trial at a federal court in Winston-Salem. A victory there will be essential to protecting the rights and dignity of North Carolina voters – and ensuring we have a government that truly represents us all.
For many years, North Carolina has been plagued by gerrymandering: the practice of politicians rigging districts to unfairly favor themselves and their own party by purposefully weakening the voting power of people they assume won’t support them at the ballot box. So often, gerrymandering has harmed Black North Carolinians, whose fundamental freedom to vote has been attacked by politicians imposing discriminatory districts.
We’re ready for this fight and we’re confident we will prevail because the Constitution is on our side. But this critically important case never should have been necessary. This is how we got here:
In 2022, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Harper v. Hall, striking down discriminatory voting maps crafted by the Republican-controlled state legislature. The court ordered new districts drawn free from gerrymandering. That was a historic victory for the People of North Carolina.
But just months later in 2023, a new Republican majority on the NC Supreme Court radically shattered legal precedent and ignored constitutional protections by overturning that ruling against gerrymandering. Instead, the new Republican majority on the NC Supreme Court showed itself to be in lockstep with extremist politicians in the legislature, giving them the green light to craft new, discriminatory voting maps.
As a result, the Republican-controlled legislature drew gerrymandered districts that violate the federally protected rights of Black North Carolinians. These manipulated voting maps erode the power of Black voters – power that was fought for in the face of violent discrimination and suffering.
The facts are clear: legislators targeted predominantly Black voting precincts with surgical precision in drawing the 2023 maps to achieve district lines that diminish Black voters’ ability to elect candidates of their choice.
Republican lawmakers imposed these discriminatory districts in a rushed process that denied the opportunity for meaningful engagement by minority representatives and citizens, and showed a disregard for the interests, needs, and desires of Black voters.
Legislative leaders calibrated this scheme to frustrate judicial review of the maps before the 2024 election, depriving Black North Carolinians of the right for their votes to have equal power at the ballot box.
In response, NAACP North Carolina State Conference and Common Cause North Carolina have united with courageous voters represented by attorneys at Southern Coalition for Social Justice in our lawsuit of NC NAACP v. Berger against these unconstitutionally gerrymandered districts.
We’re at this point because a hyper-partisan Republican majority on the NC Supreme Court failed to uphold the rule of law and instead chose their party over the People of our state. In turn, politicians in the legislature made the calculated decision to discriminate against Black North Carolinians by imposing gerrymanders designed to weaken the voting power of those communities and individuals.
And so we’re standing up to stop these harmful gerrymanders. All we’re asking for is this: our state’s voting maps must be drawn in a way that respects the constitutional freedoms of Black North Carolinians and of all voters. Discrimination and racism have no place in our democracy.
We won’t back down in our defense of voting rights. Time after time, North Carolinians have shown we can defeat attacks on our freedoms. Together, we the People will win again.
Press Contact:
Kolbey Gardner
press@ncnaacp.org