TARBORO, N.C. (July 17, 2025 — The Edgecombe Area Board of Education with one voice taken on an area redistricting map for its 2026 selecting districts earlier this week. The vote was the end result of almost 2 years’ worth of work in between Southern Union for Social Justice (SCSJ), the School Demerger Community Redistricting Working Group, and the Edgecombe Neighborhood.
“The adoption of Map C, the area’s recommended map, was absolutely a significant win for the locals of Edgecombe Area due to the fact that it secures areas of interest and gives fair representation for minority voters,” stated Mitchell Brown, Elder Guidance for Voting Legal Right at SCSJ “The initiative of the working group truly exemplifies the power of neighborhood arranging and what occurs when we have the ability to speak reality to power. We applaud the area’s work and the Board’s fostering of Map C.”
The redistricting working group is a coalition consisting of individuals from throughout Edgecombe interacting to elevate the voices of area components. The Institution Demerger Community Redistricting Working Group was formed adhering to the breakup of Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools, a system developed after a 1989 desegregation suit This demerger resulted in Edgecombe Area Public Schools absorbing almost 10, 000 students and homeowners from the Rocky Mount-Edgecombe Region area, efficiently creating a brand-new institution system.
In action to the Board’s directive to revise institution board districts, the functioning group got in touch with Edgecombe school board participants, regional officials, confidence leaders, and citizens to comprehend neighborhood priorities and assist its advocacy efforts. They were energetic in offering input from throughout the Edgecombe area on the redistricting process and sent numerous letters to the Board, including one asking for addition and openness prior to the demerger and others supplying crucial information concerning locations of numerous neighborhoods of passion.
Generally, the functioning group set in motion more than 200 neighborhood members to go to public hearings about the maps and urged greater than 60 speakers to provide public comment for their favored map, Map C. The Board considered a different map, Map D- 2 , which would have packed Black citizens into two districts with higher than 80 % Black ballot age populace. However, the strong neighborhood existence and voice sustaining Map C moved the Board to choose the neighborhood’s choice.
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Southern Union for Social Justice , founded in 2007, companions with communities of color and economically disadvantaged areas in the South to protect and progress their political, social, and economic civil liberties with the combination of lawful campaigning for, research study, organizing, and interactions. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our service Facebook , Instagram, and LinkedIn