NAACP to revive push for Beaufort City Council districts
A push for the city of Beaufort to go to single-member City Council districts is still moving forward despite a setback before last year's general election.
Ken Fields, president of the Burton-Dale-Beaufort NAACP branch, said the group hopes to begin collecting signatures next week on a petition to eventually present to council. Fields said the goal is a referendum for the next general election in 2016.
Council can act to add a referendum, or one can be added with signatures from 15 percent of the city's registered voters, per state law. The council has not had a black member since 1993.
Currently four council members and the mayor are elected at large. The NAACP has proposed that council members be elected by district and the mayor remain at large.
"We think it's unfair," Fields said of the current system. "We want it changed to reflect demographically for the black population in Beaufort."
The local NAACP branch, working with the national organization's Legal and Defense Education Fund, has been campaigning for the change since 2013, wanting a majority-black district.
The NAACP has discussed district options, and the city enlisted state demographer Bobby Bowers to help develop a solution. The possible districts discussed last year did not reach the 60 percent black population targeted to ensure black representation.
An eventual referendum would only be for voters to decide whether to establish districts, with the details worked out later. The campaign to place a referendum on the general election ballot last year wasn't successful in time for the Aug. 15 deadline.
Mayor Billy Keyserling reiterated this week that he would sign the NAACP's petition in support of its right to be engaged, but not in support of single-member districts.
Keyserling said he doesn't believe the lack of a black council member has been because of at-large voting, but rather a lack of participation on boards, commissions and neighborhood associations needed to make the leap to council. He also thinks Beaufort is too small to be split into districts.
"I encouraged them," Keyserling said. "If they think they can get the signatures, they ought to do it. That will demonstrate political will."
Fields said volunteers will split up territory within city limits and go door-to-door seeking signatures. The Seabrook resident grew up in New York and moved back to the area to settle his father's estate and has lived here the past five years.
He took over as local branch president for Darryl Murphy.
City attorney Bill Harvey, who worked with the NAACP during the process last year, said he has not heard from the organization since before November's election. He said council placed the onus on the branch to prove through the signatures there was community support.
Dwayne Smalley, president of the Northwest Quadrant Neighborhood Association, said districts would restrict the pool of voters and might not necessarily reflect the whole of the city. His neighborhood, where he lives in the same house he grew up in, was at the center of the majority-black districts proposed last year.
Smalley said he did not know enough yet about what the NAACP is proposing, but that there are plenty of opportunities for involvement outside of council.
"There are boards and commissions all over the city that black people or other people do not serve on," Smalley said. "There are other ways to affect policy."
Follow reporter Stephen Fastenau at twitter.com/IPBG_Stephen.
- Beaufort, NAACP consider referendum to create election districts, Aug. 4, 2014,
- Demographer has reservations about NAACP's proposed Beaufort council districts, June 22,
- NAACP creates maps showing Beaufort City Council district options, May 7, 2014
This story was originally published June 2, 2015 at 6:06 PM with the headline "NAACP to revive push for Beaufort City Council districts."