Correction: CMS district maps story

CHARLOTTE — On December 23rd, WSOC covered a news conference held by the African American Faith Alliance for Educational Advancement and County Commissioner Vilma Leake.

The news conference focused on new district maps for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. The community leaders expressed their concern about representation for African-American residents in Charlotte’s Cherry neighborhood. In our story, we reported their statement that Cherry is a predominantly African-American neighborhood. However, voting data shows about two-thirds of the area’s registered voters are white. We apologize for the error.

Dr. Ricky Woods, who spoke at the news conference, sent WSOC a statement that reads in part, “The statement that precinct two is a dominant African American precinct was incorrect and apology for the error in my statement.”

Dr. Woods went on to write that “although the facts were incorrect about the make-up of the precinct, the Voting Rights Act was not written to address precincts but a group of people that had been historically disenfranchised by local voting polices. The removal of Precinct 2 could have the impact of diluting the voice of African American voters thus violating the spirit of the Voting Rights Act.”

District maps are being changed to balance out population based on information from the 2020 census.

The new district maps will be discussed at the next school board meeting on January 11th. WSOC will have full coverage of that meeting.

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