“Double Voting” in Robeson County: A I REGISTER
Reminder of an Unequal Past 1 VOTE ,
by Bruce Barton*
Believe it or not, at one time double
voting was as common and accept¬
able in Robeson County as the
widespread jobs of cropping tobacco or
picking cotton. None of these exercises is
common among the people there today.
Double voting has since been outlawed,
and mostly Hispanic croppers and pick¬
ers have replaced the American Indians,
blacks, and whites who in the past per¬
formed the necessary farm chores —
although tobacco and cotton are still sta¬
ple crops in Robeson County.
Double Voting in Robeson County
before 1975
I remember well the time before the fed¬
eral courts outlawed the evil practice of
double voting. Back then in Robeson
County, some people had two votes, and
others had only one. Before 1975, six
school systems existed in Robeson
County. They were Lumberton, St. Pauls,
Fairmont, Maxton, and Red
Springs (each of these towns had
its own school system), and the
Public Schools of Robeson
County, which included everyone
else. So people who lived within
the town limits of Lumberton,
Maxton, St. Pauls, Red Springs,
and Fairmont had two votes for
board of education members.
They voted on the makeup of
their own boards of education, as
well as the board of education for
the rest of the county (the
Robeson County schools). But the
residents served by the county
school system each had only one
vote. That part of the county's
population was 60 percent Indian,
20 percent African American, and
20 percent white.
I remember double voting as
"the most evil political system
ever devised by man," as one
prominent Lumbee Indian educa¬
tor said at the time. The first arti¬
cle I ever wrote for the newspaper
Carolina Indian Voice , a weekly
publication based in Pembroke,
was entitled simply "Double
Vote?" Many columns on the
nefarious practice of double voting
appeared in the publication before
This cartoon appeared in the book An Indian Manifesto, written by Bruce Barton in
1983. It shows the Lone Ranger and his sidekick, Tonto, who is protesting against
the double vote. Image courtesy of Bruce Barton. Time line image of button courtesy of
the North Carolina Museum of History.
African American stu¬
dents are built in North
Carolina.
1919 Local officials deny
voter registration to
Cherokee veterans of
WWI.
1920 The 19th Amend¬
ment to the U.S.
Constitution gives
women throughout the
nation the right to vote,
though North Carolina
does not ratify the
amendment until 1971.
Cherokee women try to
register to vote, but local
officials prohibit them.
1921 North Carolina
establishes the Division
of Negro Education, with
Nathan C. Newbold as
director and George E,
Davis as his assistant,
1924 Federal law places
Cherokee lands in Lust
with the federal govern¬
ment and grants citizen¬
ship rights to all Indians.
North Carolina holds
that these rights apply in
the state only after tribal
lands are allotted.
1 928 Annie Wealthy
Holland of Gates County
forms the N.C. Congress
of Colored Parents and
Teachers, the first such
organization for African
Americans in the state.
1929 Union agitation
and a textile workers'
strike at L.oray Mill in
Gastonia lead to the
deaths of the town’s
police chief and of white
labor leader Ella May
Wiggins.
1930 Federal law grants
citizenship to Cherokee
Indians in North
Carolina.
1932 Black ministers in
Raleigh protest the dedi¬
cation of the War
Memorial Auditorium
because they have to sit
in the balcony.
1935 Indians in Robe¬
son County become
eligible to organize
under the federal
Wheeler-Howard Act,
passed the previous
year. Individuals must be
at least halt-blood
Indians to receive recog¬
nition.
1938 African American
students in Greensboro
initiate a theater boycott
to protest the absence
of racially balanced
movies.
Only 22 of 209 people
tested in Robeson
County qualify for recog¬
nition as Indians. Qualifi¬
cation is based on
assessment of physical
features.
1939 In response to the
Gaines decision, North
Carolina begins offering
'Bruce Barton, the founder and first editor of the newspaper Carolina Indian Voice, recently retired from teaching history in the Public Schools of
Robeson County. He is now a freelance writer who focuses on the subject he knows best— the progressive Lumbee Indians of Robeson and adjoining
counties. He also serves on the Civil Rights Exhibit Advisory Board at the North Carolina Museum of History.
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