Listen 5 min
Share
Comment on this story Comment 6
Add to your saved stories
Save
Civil rights groups and residents in Wicomico County filed a federal voting rights lawsuit Thursday against the county on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, alleging that its system for electing school board and council members is racially discriminatory and unlawful.
Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. ArrowRight
The Wicomico County NAACP, the Caucus of African American Leaders and the Watchmen With One Voice Ministerial Alliance joined four Wicomico residents in charging the county with violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which the plaintiffs say extends from “a long and disgraceful history of discrimination against Black residents.”
The system in place, plaintiffs argue in court filings, empowers “Wicomico’s white majority to override and dilute the influence of Black voters, suppress Black candidacies, and deny Black residents equal opportunity to elect their chosen representatives.”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
The seven-member boards are composed of five district-based positions and two at-large positions, which, according to the complaint consistently delivers a racial makeup of six White representatives and one Black representative on each body. Black people account for about 30 percent of the county’s roughly 104,000 residents, and people of color overall comprise about 40 percent, census data shows.
“The at-large component of the election systems for the Wicomico County Council and the Board of Education, together with the polarization of voting in the county, essentially reserves the at-large seats for whites only,” Eddie Boyd, a county resident and one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “This is not speculation, as no African American has been elected at-large since the creation of the system. We need a new system that is equitable to all the parties involved.”
Appeals court decision could limit enforcement of Voting Rights Act
Wicomico County attorney Paul Wilbur said Friday that the county and officials named as defendants, including Board of Elections President Katrina Purnell and Board of Education Chairman Eugene Malone, have not yet been served with the lawsuit.
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
Filed in federal court in Baltimore, the lawsuit says Wicomico’s current voting system is in violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits any voting law or practice that results in a “denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.”
Share this article Share
The county’s only majority-Black district accounts for the lone Black representation on both the council and the school board. About 60 percent of Wicomico public school children are students of color, the suit notes.
It calls for the at-large seats to be eliminated and the boards to be represented by seven districts, including two with a majority Black population. It also asks the court to issue an injunction barring the county from holding elections under the current system.
Story continues below advertisement
“This lawsuit has been decades in the making, but now, both the County Council and School Board must reform their discriminatory election systems to comply with the Voting Rights Act and to afford Black voters equal opportunities to elect their candidates of choice,” Deborah Jeon, legal director for the ACLU of Maryland and one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “They can do so voluntarily, or await a court order. But we are determined, at long last, to see fair representation for Wicomico’s Black residents and families.”
Advertisement
The 35-page lawsuit includes a detailed history of racial mistreatment in Wicomico County over the past 120 years, including segregation, lynchings, educational and economic discrimination, the removal of established Black neighborhoods for highway construction projects and voter intimidation and obstruction.
“This is not a new struggle, but a new front on an old one that has been going on since the reconstruction era,” Monica Brooks, president of the Wicomico County branch of the NAACP, said in a statement. “There has rarely been a time in our country’s history where there hasn’t been some form of racist disenfranchisement or gerrymandering, and Wicomico is no exception … unless we can use this moment to prove otherwise … unless we can create a ‘new reconstruction’.”
Story continues below advertisement
Carl Snowden, a longtime Maryland civil rights activist whose Caucus of African American Leaders is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, was involved in efforts in the 1980s that brought voting rights lawsuits to communities on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Prince George’s County. Back then, Snowden said in an interview Friday, there was not a single African American member of the General Assembly from the Eastern Shore despite its significant Black population.
Advertisement
There are recent examples of court-ordered changes to voting laws leading to the elections of Black representatives in Maryland. In November, voters elected the first Black council members in Federalsburg, a small town in nearby Caroline County.
“One of the great benefits of the Voting Rights Act is that it empowers powerless people so we have today African American mayors and board members and representatives in various jurisdictions on the Eastern Shore,” Snowden said.
He expects the lawsuit filed Thursday to bring changes to Wicomico County. “This lawsuit really attempts to, through the courts, reverse historic wrongs,” Snowden said. “With the stroke of a pen, judges have been able to make it possible for people of color to elect representatives of their choice.”
Share
6 Comments
More coverage of Maryland
HAND CURATED
She cherished the home where her family fled slavery. Then a stranger bought it.
August 5, 2023
She cherished the home where her family fled slavery. Then a stranger bought it.
August 5, 2023
Runaway zebras delighted the nation — and exposed their owner’s dark past
October 27, 2023
Runaway zebras delighted the nation — and exposed their owner’s dark past
October 27, 2023
Their sons’ lives ended in gunfire. In grief, they found a second act.
November 25, 2023
Their sons’ lives ended in gunfire. In grief, they found a second act.
November 25, 2023
View 3 more stories
Loading...
Subscribe to comment and get the full experience. Choose your plan →