< Previous page
Next page >

"At this point in time, I don't think Beaufort County would be able to look past race in voting," said Kellie Harris Hopkins, the county elections director. "It's an ugly fact. Prejudice is still an issue."

Stark divisions

At lunchtime one recent day, a steady stream of customers visited the takeout window of King Chicken Drive In, a few blocks from the elections office.

Close by, two black men played checkers with wooden discs, whisking through games as they pondered how far this Down East county has come.

"You need the oversight," said Eric Whitney, 34. "Without it, the blacks won't be heard, you know."

His opponent, a graying Melvin Moore, thinks the younger generation will see through skin color in casting votes.

"Young people, they think with an open mind," said Moore, jumping his pieces across the board. "Now, white kids know they're not superior to blacks. And they go home and tell their parents, 'Why'd you lie to me?' "

Just outside town that afternoon, a white-haired man sat behind a ball field fence along the third base line, watching his grandson practice.

Raymond Carrow, 72, who is white, thinks the Voting Rights Act ought to be wiped out, including its ban on literacy tests.

"When you give one person a right, you take another person's rights away," said Carrow, a retired farmer. He's fine with black elected officials, as long as they earn most of the votes. "I thought majority rules," he said.

And though Carrow said there are lots of black people he would vote for, political experts point to the overwhelming tendency of people to support candidates of their same race.

Robert Hunter, a Greensboro elections lawyer, said without the deterrent of Section 5, white politicians of both parties would submerge minority needs to what whites see as their larger needs.

He said "racially polarized voting" still exists in much of the South.

Still, some people question whether the justice department's oversight is still needed.

Congress is debating the renewal of Section 5 for another 25 years. The House bill is sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, a Charlotte Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. It was introduced with fanfare this spring by Watt and a host of House and Senate leaders from both parties, all gathered on the Capitol steps.

But the smooth ride they expected hit bumps. A group of Republicans from Georgia and Texas want Section 5 done away with or, at least, applied nationally.

Many say another 25 years of federal government oversight ignores the progress made since 1965 and unfairly paints the South with a broad brush.

Their opposition was strong enough that, last month, House leaders scuttled a vote on the measure at the last minute, worrying proponents of the renewal.

Many backers of the renewal acknowledge the progress. But they also fear backsliding.

Butterfield, a civil rights lawyer who represents the southern half of Beaufort County, comes from a congressional district drawn with African-Americans in mind. He pointed out in a recent interview that in the eastern counties he represents, there are more than 300 black elected officials.

Still, he said, many white voters aren't comfortable casting ballots for black candidates. He calls Section 5 "a safety valve."

"We don't want to turn the clock back," Butterfield said.

Now there's a move afoot in Beaufort County to alter how county commissioners get elected.

Whites always won

For decades in the county, the electoral system worked against minorities.

The seven county commissioners were elected in at-large races. Highest vote-getters won office, and -- because white voters composed a sizable majority -- the winners were always white.

< Previous page
Next page >