A busload of citizens from Duplin County, members of the Duplin County NAACP, and NAACP State Leadership, protested Senate Bill 550 which tries to add an additional member to Duplin County’s Board of Education and Board of Commissioners. The Duplin County Board of Elections and its Board of Commissioners both oppose this bill.
The Bill, which dilutes the voting strength of African Americans and other ethnic minorities in the County, was introduced by Sen. Charles Albertson, and moved quickly, and quietly, through the Senate. It is now being considered by the House of Representatives.
The Bill would violate a federal court order still in effect. Duplin’s current governing bodies consist of six members, each elected from a single-member district. This system was ordered by a federal court as a remedy in the NAACP’s 1988 lawsuit in which the County stipulated that its at-large seat voting system violated African American voting rights.
North Carolina NAACP President William Barber said, “We are surprised no one in the Senate saw fit to stop this back-door attempt to dilute the voting rights of people of color in Duplin. I recommend to every member of the Senate and House they re-read their official 2006 Report on the Wilmington Race Riot. It carefully documented the disenfranchisement campaign against African Americans in Eastern North Carolina, led by Charles Aycock, Julian Carr, Jonathan Daniels, and other powerful white politicians of the day, who used poor white men in Red Shirts to do their dirty work. After the only violent coup d’etat ever staged in our nation, which was the prototype for terrorist attacks to disenfranchise us across the South, we were subjected to over sixty years of legalistic subterfuges and pretexts designed to keep us voteless and powerless. Duplin was one of the first counties our great grandfathers fled to after being exiled from their Wilmington homes. The Wilmington trauma lies close to the surface in the body-politic of Duplin.”
Anita Earls, Director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and one of the top Voting Rights attorneys in the South, has represented the NAACP in similar attempts by local white politicians to water down and manipulate Black voting strength in North Carolina. Earls said, "If this Bill passes, the NAACP would request the Federal Court to enjoin its implementation. We hope alert and knowledgeable members in the House will examine it carefully, and put a stop to it there.
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