Several organizations and civil rights activists in North Carolina have taken legal action against members of the North Carolina General Assembly and State Board of Elections over allegations of racial gerrymandering, a nationwide issue where several states have been ordered to redraw congressional and legislative maps.
The lawsuit was filed recently in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, Common Cause North Carolina and other groups argue that state lawmakers intentionally dismantled longstanding “Black opportunity districts” and diluted the power of Black voters in the state.
“In 2023, the North Carolina General Assembly redrew its state legislative and congressional plans to severely diminish the voting power of North Carolina’s Black voters, who comprise over 22% of residents in the state,” the lawsuit says.
“The General Assembly targeted predominantly Black voting precincts with surgical precision throughout the state in drawing and enacting the 2023 Plans, at the expense of traditional redistricting criteria, to achieve preferred district lines that diminish Black voters’ ability to elect candidates of their choice at all levels of government.”
The electoral maps unlawfully target “Black voting power in North Carolina’s historic Black Belt, which stretches across the northeastern portion of the state” and dilute their voting rights, the lawsuit states. “The effect of these actions is to inequitably reduce the electoral influence of the Black voters of North Carolina in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the United States Constitution.”
Meanwhile, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice attorney Hilary Harris Klein said congressional candidates in the 2024 elections have chosen to drop out of the race as a result of the redrawn electoral maps in North Carolina, according to the Daily Beast.
“They’re predominantly candidates of choice for Black voters,” she told the Daily Beast. “[Democratic Rep.] Kathy Manning, who was in congressional District 6, is a quintessential example.”
The lawsuit comes amid several Southern states being accused of voter discrimination against Black voters in redistricting processes. In fact, state lawmakers in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana were ordered to redraw congressional districts to enfranchise minority voters.
On Thursday, Dec. 28, a federal judge in Georgia upheld a district map in that state that recently had been redrawn by that state’s Republican legislators, striking down a plaintiffs’ suit that claimed African-American voters were illegally disenfranchised by the new map that carved up Black congresswoman Lucy McBath’s 7th District. McBath now intends to run for the seat in the redrawn 6th District.
Organizations such as the ACLU and the NAACP have filed legal complaints in jurisdictions across the South, claiming that previous district boundaries intentionally weakened the voting strength and impact of Black and Brown communities.
