End the effort to silence the voices of African-American voters in Winston-Salem

House Bill 519 would merge three majority-minority Winston-Salem City Council Districts currently represented by African-American women, into a single district, forcing them to compete against one another for a district seat. The Bill would also create three, arguably four at-large city council seats which would be far more difficult for African-Americans to compete in. Further, all City Council members would be required to run for re-election every two years as opposed to the current four-year election cycle. In 1973, The Supreme Court ruled in White v. Regester that creating at-large seats in order to limit rights of African-American voters is illegal. House Bill 519 would illegally eviscerate the representation of African-American voters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.