WICOMICO COUNTY, MD — After decades of struggle and advocacy, Wicomico County’s Black voters and civil rights organizations closed out Black History Month 2025 with a history-making victory of their own. Today, United States District Judge Matthew J. Maddox entered judgment on a consent agreement that transforms Wicomico County’s election system and resolves the 2023 federal Voting Rights Act lawsuit brought against the County and its School Board by Black voters Monica Brooks, Dr. Eddie Boyd, Amber Green, Luc Angelot and Mary Ashanti, the Wicomico County NAACP, the Caucus of African American Leaders, and the Watchmen with One Voice Ministerial Alliance.
The Court judgment dismantles Wicomico’s partial at-large election system that has diluted Black votes and denied the community fair representation for decades, replacing it with an equitable system of seven single-member districts. Further, following the inspiring precedent set last year by Black voters and officials in the Town of Federalsburg, the Wicomico agreement goes beyond traditional election reforms by incorporating additional remedies to overcome past exclusion of the Black community from government. These reforms include creative measures to promote unity and collaboration, such as establishing a new Wicomico Human Rights Advisory Committee and adding a first-ever permanent student member position on the School Board.
“W.E.B Du Bois once said, ‘The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, --else what shall save us from a second slavery?’” noted Wicomico County NAACP President Monica Brooks. “By demonstrating the strength to take on a legal challenge and seeing it through to this exceptional outcome, Wicomico’s Black voters have seized back the power of the ballot to empower our community toward a new era of equity and opportunity. True democracy needs true representation. It is our hope that the changes effected here will encourage more people of color to run for political office. Wicomico County NAACP and area organizations will be holding seminars on how to run for office, how to be a part of a campaign, and elections.”
“This victory belongs to the people,” said Amber Green, individual plaintiff and advocate from Wicomico County. “It is a testament to the power of collective action and a reminder that when we fight for justice, we win. But our work does not end here. We must continue to engage, to vote, and to hold our leaders accountable. Wicomico County’s future is brighter today because of the courage of those who refused to be ignored.”
“I am proud to be a part of this transformative win for racial justice and equity,” said individual plaintiff and young activist Luc Angelot. “This victory is a declaration that our voices matter, our votes count, and that our future belongs to us. This ruling is not the end, but the beginning of an era where equity is not just an ideal, but a reality.”
The lawsuit and settlement arise against the backdrop of a long legacy of racial discrimination and oppression in Wicomico County and across Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Nearly 30 percent of Wicomico County’s current population is Black and over 40 percent is Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). The student population attending Wicomico County public schools is 63 percent BIPOC. Yet, until now, the County and its School System have been governed almost exclusively by white people. White officials hold all but a single seat among the seven on both the County Council and School Board. The lone Black member on each is elected from the single majority-Black district. Likewise, all state legislators representing Wicomico County are white except for the state delegate elected from the single majority-Black district – a district that was ordered into effect by Maryland’s federal court in 1994 after a voting rights lawsuit. The County Executive, School Superintendent, State’s Attorney, Sheriff, Register of Wills, Court Clerk, Judges of the Circuit, District and Orphan’s Courts all are white.
Tracing the history of race discrimination in Wicomico County and its impacts on Black residents, the lawsuit alleges that white domination of the County Council and Board of Education results directly from Wicomico’s use of a hybrid at-large, single-member district system. The system uses two at-large seats and five single-member districts to unlawfully dilute the votes of Black residents, limiting fair representation. This system has been in place for the County Council since 1990, and for the Board of Education since 2016. Throughout that 35-year timespan, it effectively reserved every at-large seat for white candidates, confining Black residents’ influence on both the Council and School Board to a single majority-Black district. The new system changes that, doubling opportunities for Black voters by creating two majority-Black districts for both the County Council and School Board.
After the lawsuit’s filing in December 2023, the parties tried to resolve the case collaboratively. But when the County stalled and the School Board resisted these efforts in 2024, the Plaintiffs laid out proof of their case in a comprehensive filing in July, asking United State District Judge Matthew Maddox to order immediate reform of the system. That motion was supported by extensive expert evidence detailing the need for reform to overcome minority vote dilution, as well as by forceful personal testimony from individual Black voters detailing the discrimination and indignities they had suffered as a result of both the election plan and the extensive resistance by government officials to past efforts to overcome race-based mistreatment. The Defendants never attempted to defend against Plaintiffs’ arguments on the merits. Instead, following the voters’ lawsuit, the parties agreed to attempt to resolve the case through federal court mediation, overseen by United States Magistrate Judge Erin Aslan.
Through the lawsuit and mediation, the Plaintiffs won court-approved reforms to establish a new, fair election system that complies with federal voting laws. This system consists of a racially equitable structure with seven single-member districts for both the County Council and Board of Education. Additionally, Plaintiffs secured critical additional relief to address longstanding racial discrimination in the county. The lawsuit resulted in the following:
- Elimination of at-large elections and creation of seven single-member districts, two majority Black in voting age population
- Formation of a Wicomico County Human Rights Advisory Committee
- Establishment of a Student Board Member Position
- Mandatory Anti-Bias Training
- Biannual Special Work Sessions with the Plaintiff Organizations
Although some County officials have recently claimed that they would have made these reforms without court intervention, the Plaintiffs dismiss these contentions as “revisionist history” defying reality—pointing to the County’s years of resistance to reforms requested by Black voters. Defendants both knew that the existing system was racially discriminatory and chose to continue with the hybrid system anyway. Court filings show that, as recently as 2022, the County’s own Redistricting Commission warned the County a lawsuit was inevitable if reforms were not implemented, but that warning was ignored. Further, 2023 efforts by NAACP President Monica Brooks to discuss the issue with County officials prior to filing of the lawsuit were aggressively blocked by the County Executive.
“It is offensive and dishonest for the County to claim now that they didn’t know there was a problem and we didn’t need to sue, when Black Wicomico residents have been seeking elimination of at-large elections since 1985 and the County has fought to maintain that system time and again, with full knowledge it is discriminatory,” said Mary Ashanti, President Emeritus of the Wicomico NAACP, who spent 24 years at the helm of the organization and repeatedly raised concerns about the County’s discriminatory election system. “Our willingness to go to court to demand fair elections and the successful outcome of our lawsuit are a testament to the resilience of our community and the power of collective action. Our fight has never been just for ourselves, but for the generations to come; it’s about dignity, justice, and ensuring our voices are heard where decisions are made.”
These sentiments were echoed by Dr. Eddie Boyd, individual plaintiff in the lawsuit and former Wicomico School Board member who began working to advance voting rights in Wicomico County in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice in the 1980s and has dedicated 40 years to the cause. “This remarkable win has come about now, at long last, only because we filed this lawsuit and pushed it through to this extraordinary conclusion,” Dr. Boyd said. “It represents the combined efforts and perseverance of generations of Black community leaders and young activists working together to reach for a fairer future. We could not be more proud of the success we have achieved for our entire community.”
Deborah Jeon, Legal Director for the ACLU of Maryland, said: “The long and winding road that Wicomico County’s Black voters have traveled to this day reveals just how steep the barriers to fair representation remain even today – even in Maryland. It’s a striking reminder that Black America’s fight for equal access to democracy is far from over, putting the lie to Donald Trump’s false claim that the need for legal protections to advance equity is a thing of the past. Only after decades of struggle, and only through Court action to ensure enforcement of the Voting Rights Act enacted fully 60 years ago, will Wicomico’s Black community finally gain fair voice in their County government.”
The Plaintiffs are represented by John Freedman, Jonathan Stern, and Anora Wang of Arnold & Porter, as well as Deborah Jeon, Nicholas Taichi Steiner, and Zoe Ginsberg from the ACLU of Maryland.
