Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

RALEIGH – A North Carolina Highway Historical Marker honoring the efforts of a Bertie County woman who fought for voting rights in the 1960s has been approved.

NC House member Rodney D. Pierce (D-Halifax) stated he has secured the marker from the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program.

The marker, approved earlier this month, commemorates the landmark 1961 state Supreme Court case Bazemore v. Bertie County Board of Elections, a pivotal moment in the state’s voting rights history.

Brought by the late Nancy Cherry Bazemore of Windsor, the case challenged racially discriminatory voter registration practices and was decided in her favor by the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Bazemore was represented by attorney James Walker Jr., a native of Ahoskie, one of the first Black graduates of UNC-Chapel Hill (School of Law, Class of 1952). In addition to successfully securing the marker for Bazemore, Pierce has also gained approval for a historical marker honoring Walker.

“The Highway Historical Marker Committee unanimously voted to accept the subject of Bazemore v. Bertie County Board of Elections as a marker, highlighting the national importance of the local court case,” said Leslie Leonard, administrator of the NC Highway Historical Marker Program.

“This case is a critical part of our state’s civil rights history and a reminder of the bravery of ordinary citizens like Nancy Bazemore and pioneering professionals like James Walker Jr.,” said Rep. Pierce. “Their courage helped pave the way for greater equality at the ballot box.”

In a statement, the Bazemore family said the marker stands as a powerful tribute to their matriarch in the face of systemic injustice.

“Her courage in challenging the discriminatory literacy test through the court system paved the way for greater voting rights and equality in North Carolina,” the family said. “Through her resistance, she not only won her case but also inspired future generations to stand firm against oppression. This marker now serves as a lasting symbol of her unwavering spirit and historic contribution to civil rights. Her children, Jeandell, Alice, Cassie, William, Sandra and Electra, and the generations that follow are humbly grateful for this recognition and honor.”

The then 47-year-old Bazemore tried to register to vote in the county’s Windsor precinct in May 1960. While Blacks outnumbered whites by a 3-to-2 ratio in the county, whites who were registered to vote in the county outnumbered registered Blacks by an almost 9:1 ratio.

Registrars then employed in Bertie used discriminatory tactics against Black residents to make it more difficult for them to register to vote through literacy tests. While the registrar read from the state constitution, Bazemore and others in the Woodville precinct had to take dictation like they were secretaries.

Spelling errors lowered a potential voter’s score as the registrar graded. Earlier that year in March, the state attorney general stated that dictation tests in which spelling counted were “illegal” and could not be a “requirement or prerequisite for the registration of voters.”

However, Bertie County did not abide by the ruling. The Woodville precinct registrar graded Bazemore’s dictation and gave her a failing grade, so she would be unable to register to vote. She immediately gave notice of appeal of the registrar’s decision to the local board of elections.

During her appeal hearing a week later, when the board member began to read from the state constitution as Bazemore was positioned to write, Walker announced that she refused to submit to the board’s test. The board rejected Bazemore’s appeal, and Walker appealed their decision until he reached the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Walker argued in his brief to the court that the application of the literacy test as administered in the Woodville precinct and Bertie County, where incorrect spelling and transcription subtracted from the legitimacy of one’s registration, was unconstitutional under the state constitution’s separation of powers mandate as it gave legislative power to local election officials. He added that county officials only applied the literacy test dictation requirement to Blacks attempting to register to vote.

Finally, Walker stated that incorrect pronunciations, registrars reading at a quick pace, hearing impairment, and speech habits could complicate transcription, and evaluation was left up to the discretion of the registrar.

The court ruled in Bazemore’s favor in April 1961, opining that though it felt that the Woodville precinct registrar and Bertie County Board of Elections had not “acted in bad faith,” the literacy test as administered by them was “unreasonable and beyond the intent of the statute.”

The court further established standards for the test statewide: Applicants who were asked to read the constitution aloud had to be given legible copies of the document, the grading standard for the writing portion of the test was to be “reasonable proficiency” and not perfection, and the test’s length could not be so unreasonable to delay others wishing to register. The ruling also paved the way for the State Board of Elections to add further rules and regulations for the administration of the test.

Due to their large Black populations, Bertie was among nine rural eastern counties – the others being Camden, Currituck, Franklin, Gates, Greene, Halifax, Northampton, Warren – that were found to have the most difficult literacy tests by the NC Advisory Committee to the 1961 United States Commission on Civil Rights. While the tests have long been illegal under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they remain in the state constitution. Bipartisan legislative efforts were made in both chambers of the General Assembly this session, and have been made in past sessions, to delete or repeal that language from the state constitution, though none of the bills have made it to a floor vote.

The Bazemore application was initially deferred with favor in December 2024 by the NC Highway Historical Marker Committee, who requested further documentation linking the case to broader voting rights efforts, literacy tests, and the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act. Rep. Pierce found the needed support after a serendipitous connection with state Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls. Justice Earls, who had invited Pierce to speak about Walker during a Black History Month event at the court earlier this year, assisted in locating the historical documentation that tied Bazemore to the broader fight against literacy tests and voter suppression.

With that information in hand, Pierce appealed the initial decision, resulting in the committee’s approval of the marker.

Since 2018, Rep. Pierce has secured historical markers mostly commemorating important figures and events in African American and civil rights history across the state, including:

Halifax County: Louis Austin, Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, Halifax County Voters Movement, and Johnson v. Branch.

Northampton County: Nicholas Franklin Roberts and Mebane Holoman Burgwyn.

Gates County: Annie Wealthy Holland

Hertford County: James Walker Jr.

Bertie County: Bazemore v. Bertie County Board of Elections

Additionally, and most recently, Pierce secured a marker in Greensville County, Virginia, for civil rights attorney Samuel W. Tucker, which was dedicated earlier this year.

“This work is about reclaiming the legacy of those who shaped our state and nation through quiet courage and bold action,” Pierce said. “Their stories deserve to be permanently remembered—not just in history books, but in the very communities where they lived and fought for change.”