Inside the history of redistricting in North Carolina’s Black Belt

North Carolina’s Black Belt is a cluster of northeastern counties known for its rich soil and history. And now, it’s the site of one of the most enduring issues in the state: redistricting. 

But this isn’t the first time that the region has been redistricted to disenfranchise Black voters.

In this episode, we go back to the turn of the 20th century, when white supremacists dismantled “The Black Second,” or North Carolina’s first majority-Black congressional district. This event would set up a century-long struggle between Black voters and those in power who sought to disenfranchise them — a struggle happening to this day. 

Shoresides talked to two eastern North Carolinians. David Cecelski is a historian and storyteller from Carteret County who has written countless works on coastal NC. James Williams Jr. is a retired lawyer who grew up in the Black Belt — Plymouth, to be exact — during the Jim Crow era and Civil Rights Movement. 

This is the first part of a series on redistricting in eastern North Carolina. 

Host / Producer: Layna Hong