THE ELECTION OF BLACKS TO SCHOOL BOARDS IN NORTH-CAROLINA

We examine the 140 school board systems in North Carolina in 1987 and discover that district elections are distinctly superior to at-large elections in helping blacks to achieve representation on school boards in proportion to their presence among the voters. At-large election among candidates selected from specific districts was less supportive of black candidates than regular at-large methods; and, as expected, district elections are most likely to give blacks about the same proportion of seats on the school board as they have voters in the school district. Partisan elections are not helpful to blacks, but holding elections during the time of general elections rather than during primary elections promotes black representation. Appointed school boards have blacks on board, but the proportions are unrelated to black presence in the community; where blacks are few in the population, an appointive system is helpful for black representation. School board elections in North Carolina are not as favorable to blacks in general as school board elections in large urban areas studied by other authors.