SAVING OUR DEMOCRACY - One Person, One Vote - America’s Ongoing Struggle with Our Most Basic Right

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Dipper

Explores how North Carolina’s congressional redistricting reshaped students’ voting access at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, moving them from representation by a Democratic member to two Republicans. Traces broader national patterns of voter suppression through racial and partisan gerrymandering, stringent voter ID laws, and the judicial shifts that limited enforcement, highlighting Project RedMAP and key court decisions that weakened protections for “one person, one vote.”

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

New Forms of Voter Suppression

A New Tool

Defining Moments

SAVING OUR DEMOCRACY One Person, One Vote America’s Ongoing Struggle with Our Most Basic Right By Eric H. Holder, Jr. O ver the past decade, the students of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (N.C. A&T) in Greensboro, North Carolina, the largest historically Black public university in the country, were forced into the spotlight of a national fight over voting rights that has been profoundlyreshaping our democracy. During the 2018 midterm elections, students on campus, the vast majority of whom are African American, were split into two separate congressional districts. Depending on which dorm you lived in, you either voted in the 6th Congressional District or the 13th Congressional District. To make the situation even more confusing, for the three prior congressional elections in 2012, 2014, and 2016, students on campus voted in the state’s 12th Congressional District. What changed? Federal courts found that North Carolina’s congressional map, which was drawn during the redistricting process in 2011, illegally diluted the voting power of people of color by a process known as cracking or packing voters. Put another way, the EricH. Holder, Jr., serves as chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee ([democraticredistricting.com](democraticredistricting.com)). He served in the Obama Administration as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from February 2009 to April 2015, the third longest serving attorney general in US history and the first African American to hold that office. state legislature used gerrymandering (the practice of drawing electoral lines to benefit one party) to create congressional districts that unfairly diminished the voting power of people of color in the state. When the leadership in the state legislature was forced to redraw the map, they replaced their illegal racial gerrymander with a partisan gerrymander. The resulting map drew a line directly through the center of theN.C. A&T campus. The students went from being represented by Alma Adams, a Democratic member of the Congressional Black Caucus, to two Republicans. In short, students who had been packed by racial gerrymandering were cracked by partisan gerrymandering. We don’t need to guess at the intent ofthose in the state legislature who were in charge of drawing the maps—one of them announced1 that he was drawing a map that gave Republicans 10 seats and Democrats 3 seats in the congressional delegation only because it was not mathematically possible to draw 11 seats for his Republican Party. While this was a particularly brazen instance of voter suppression because the culprit was willing to admit themisdeed, the truth is that it’s part of a much larger project that has taken place over the past decade that has undermined voting rights in America. New Forms of Voter Suppression The sad truth is that the poll tax and Jim Crow–era laws may be relics of bygone periods, but they have been replaced by new 14 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | FALL 2020 forms of discrimination and voter disenfranchisement that are very real and pervasive problems across America. As is so often the case in American history, progressive steps forward are often met by resistance and backlash. In this case, the election of Barack Obama by a young, diverse coalition of supporters was followed by a new movement of voter suppression. Instead of actively trying to court this rising electorate, too many Republicans set about undermining the principle of “one person, one vote” so they could minimize the voting power of those who disagree with their views. This work has been done using a number of tools, but the most prominent remain partisan and racial gerrymandering and stringent voter ID laws that overwhelmingly impact people of color and people who are poor. Voter suppression has allowed politicians to hold onto power despite often being out of step with voters on issues such as gun safety, climate change, reproductive rig

FAQs

How did redistricting in North Carolina affect students at N.C. A&T?

Students were split into different congressional districts depending on where they lived, rather than voting in the same district as in prior elections. The change stemmed from maps ruled to have illegally diluted the voting power of people of color.

What methods are described as modern tools of voter suppression?

The text emphasizes partisan and racial gerrymandering and stringent voter ID laws that disproportionately impact people of color and people who are poor.

Which court decisions are presented as key moments in weakening voting protections?

It cites the Supreme Court’s Shelby County decision in 2013 and the Supreme Court’s Rucho v. Common Cause decision in 2019, both described as enabling or limiting the policing of voter restrictions and partisan gerrymandering.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Dipper