In North Carolina, the right to vote and freely participate in the political process has a complex history marked by progress and setbacks. In its early history and until 1835, North Carolina was the only southern state that allowed “Free Africans” to vote, as granted by the constitution. For 33 years, the General Assembly enacted race-based political exclusion, temporarily stopping when a new state constitution was adopted, guaranteeing the right to vote to “every person born or naturalized in the United States, eighteen years of age, and otherwise qualified.” During the Reconstruction Period that followed and the passage of the 15th Amendment, African Americans registered to vote, gained political success, and were elected at local, county, and state levels. At the same time, women, in particular, Black women, were fighting for the right to vote. African Americans and Black people quickly faced political violence and physical intimidation by white supremacists as Jim Crow laws emerged (including the literacy tests and poll taxes) as the foundation of North Carolina’s society, going beyond the right to vote and depriving non-white people of the ability to participate in daily life. The 1898 Wilmington Massacre, through violent white mobs, overthrew duly elected biracial leaders, destroyed Black-owned property and businesses, and murdered Black citizens. 

 

Rev. Kenneth Williams was the first Black person elected to the Winston-Salem City Council in 1947. In response, the General Assembly redrew voting districts to intentionally dilute the voting power and to disenfranchise Black people. During this time, Ella Baker led the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Shaw University, and students across North Carolina organized together to fight for civil rights and political freedom. In 1968, Henry Frye became the first African American to be elected to the General Assembly and later was the first African American Justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court (appointed by Gov. Jim Hunt and then elected and re-elected to the Court). The passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided significant federal and court intervention that protected the right to vote for African Americans and prohibited discriminatory practices on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group. Forty of North Carolina’s 100 counties were covered under Section Five preclearance, requiring these counties to receive approval before making voting and election laws changes. At the same time, county and state lawmakers utilized gerrymandering to intentionally discriminate (racially and politically) against Black voters, resulting in a series of U.S. Supreme Court landmark cases, like Thornburg v. Gingles, which required protecting a minority group of voters when certain factors are met. Seventeen years after the Voting Rights Act, 57% of Black North Carolinians were registered to vote, and yet still faced voter intimidation and violence as well as social and economic barriers to voting. 

 

Efforts to expand the right to vote in the early 2000s included pre-registration of 16- and 17-year-olds, early voting, and same-day registration. North Carolina had the most significant increase in voter turnout between 2004 and 2008, with 65.8% of eligible voters casting a ballot. However, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby vs. Holder (2013), which effectively ended the Section Five preclearance of the Voting Rights Act, the General Assembly immediately passed House Bill 589, a “monster” voter suppression law that required voter photo ID, ended same-day registration, decreased opportunities to vote early, and prohibited pre-registration. Ultimately, a federal court found that the General Assembly acted with racially discriminatory intent, violating equal protection rights. Although North Carolina’s population continues to grow more diverse, it is not reflected in state-level political representation due to gerrymandering and the frequent changes to voting laws under the guise of “election integrity.” Responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic promoted more accessible and pro-voter policies, such as the one-witness requirement when voting by mail, contributing to North Carolina’s highest voter turnout in modern history at 75%. Historic legal victories in 2022 were sadly short-lived after the North Carolina Supreme Court’s majority changed its political composition and overturned two prior decisions that protected voters against racially discriminatory voter photo ID and partisan gerrymandering. 

 

Despite these challenges and struggles, North Carolina’s voting history and future continue to bend toward justice and a multi-racial democracy because we, the people, continue to vote. 
 

Sources

• NC Voting History Timeline (Democracy NC) 

• Irving Joyner, Challenging Voting Rights and Political Participation in State Courts, 21 The Scholar 231 (2019).

• N.C. State Conference of the NAACP v. McCrory, 831 F.3d 204 (4th Cir. 2016)

• A Brief History of Voter Suppression in North Carolina (Democracy NC) 

• Final Judgement, Harper v. Hall (Jan. 11, 2022) 

• 2020 North Carolina Election Protection Report