- Just ahead on Black Issues Forum, who really has the power to decide what happens in your community?

From a historic black town facing development pressure to the balance of power between local communities and state government.

We look at who holds power, how communities can build their own, and what North Carolina voters need to know before heading to the polls this November.

Coming up next, stay with us.

[upbeat music] ♪ - Welcome to Black Issues Forum.

I'm Kenia Thompson.

So, who gets to decide what happens in your community?

We elect mayors, town councils, county commissioners, state lawmakers, but those layers of government don't always agree, and sometimes the decisions made at one level can limit what leaders at another level are able to do.

That's what happened in Taylortown, a historically black township in Moore County, just outside of Pinehurst.

We visited their town and we brought you this story from the viewpoint of town residents, leaders, and afterwards we'll meet today's panel to explore the broader implications of what happened there.

But first, let's take a visit to Taylortown.

- More and more every day I see different things going on, and it's almost like you want to stay in your own little bubble because it's safe, it's comfortable, it's just home.

There's no other way to put it, it's just home.

And sometimes when you can get too many bricks and things thrown around, buildings going up and different things, it starts looking like everywhere else.

- [Kenia] For more than a century, this small, historically black community in Moore County has existed just across the road from one of the most recognizable golf destinations in the country, Pinehurst Resort.

Today residents say the question isn't whether Taylortown should grow, it's who gets to decide how.

- Taylortown has rich history.

It was founded by an ex-slave, Demus Taylor.

We were known for being the home of the caddies.

- [Kenia] Demus, short for Nicodemus Taylor, became a top caddy at Pinehurst Resort and in the 1900s purchased property from Pinehurst's founder, land that would later be incorporated as Taylortown.

- So many communities that were like this have not survived.

- It's a simple fact of what we grew up with, we didn't know how good we had it.

- The leaders at that time decided maybe we need to try to become incorporated for us to survive, to have our own rooms.

- [Kenia] Incorporation in 1987 gave Taylortown something its leaders had fought for, the legal authority to govern itself.

Nearly four decades later, that authority became the center of another fight.

- Mayor Cotton?

- Yes.

- Mayor Pro Tem Gatti?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Moody?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Parker?

- [Kenia] In the spring of 2025, Taylortown leaders discovered developers were interested in building hotels in the town.

On March 11th, Taylortown put a six-month pause on commercial development to give town leaders time to review land use and infrastructure needs.

But soon after, state Senator Tom McInnis asked the town to approve the developers' building permit within two weeks or he would explore remedies through the general assembly.

Later that summer, new language specifically naming Taylortown was inserted into House Bill 173, an existing proposition that pertained to zoning and planning authority in Wake County.

The change would invalidate Taylortown's action and restrict its development power.

That summer, the measure was ratified and made law by the general assembly.

At a town council meeting on August 26th, local leaders granted developers approval for a special permit to build the hotels.

- Change has been a little slow, but now it's improving and it's necessary because we're now at a place now that we want the young people to come back.

So we need to work on our infrastructure and different things and make it more inviting for them to come back.

We need some homes, affordable homes.

We need to fix up the homes that we have here and commercial businesses.

- Realistically, we know we can't stay the same.

Things change, but even in that, if we can keep a sense of us, even in the midst of changing, I think we'll be fine because we are resilient people.

We are strong people.

We cry, we bend, we don't break and we're not breaking.

- I look at what's going on now, 39 years later.

We have, we're still going up there to do the fight for our town.

Some people still have, I'm going to just say land that was their grandparents.

And some people wonder why we - won't people sell their property.

You know, everybody wants progress, but we still want them to feel safe in our community.

Some people don't care about your history.

Wiping away means nothing to them.

- [Kenia] For Taylortown, land isn't just real estate.

For some families, it's one of the most tangible things previous generations were able to leave behind.

- I think representation is paramount.

My choice and what I decided to do is just as important as the next person, no matter color of skin.

I think that this town has done a remarkable job standing on their beliefs, no matter what they faced or who they faced.

- [Kenia] But the Taylortown dispute raises a larger question.

What happens when the people voters elect locally make one decision, and the people voters send to Raleigh have the authority to change it?

- You hear a lot of people say, "Oh, my vote doesn't count."

It counts.

So you need to come in this town and vote for the leaders in this town because your vote does count.

- Every town matters.

Everything you do matters.

Everybody has an opinion and everybody is valued.

You know, we might be small, but we are mighty.

In the next five years, I see Taylortown striving, growing, and flourishing the right way.

- Well, joining me now are Dr.

Jarvis Hall, associate professor of political science at North Carolina Central University, and Dr.

Jovita Lee Miller, deputy director for North Carolina Black Alliance.

Welcome to you both.

- Thank you.

- So we just watched that piece.

I want to get your thoughts on it.

You know, for a town like Taylortown, when we think about power and the control of decisions around what happens in a town like that, when you see that, who has the ultimate say and the ultimate power?

I'll start with you.

- Yeah, great question.

So I think my immediate reaction to the video, one, is really pride in that town because they took the proper steps to become incorporated and make sure that they had a reality where they had their own representation in that area.

I think one of the things to name is that North Carolina is a Dillons rule state.

And so essentially, our local leadership can only go as far as the state legislature allows.

And so that is something to note when we think about the dynamic between local leadership and state leadership.

But I think we do need to expand the definition of power, right?

Because a lot of times it's like, who has the power to make certain decisions?

But a lot of times we undercut the power of people.

I think Justice Spring is a perfect example of that local and state dynamic.

There was another bill, Senate Bill 214, and that bill would have allowed for Franklin County to seize land from other counties like Vance and Warren and Halifax.

And so the local leadership of those counties banded together with the community and they went to the General Assembly and advocated for that not to happen.

And very swiftly, that portion of that bill was taken out.

And so we do need to expand how we see power, because there is still a voice that local leadership and community leaders can have, even though there's technical law on the books.

- Dr.

Hall, I want to bring you in.

Your thoughts?

- Yes.

We are a Dillon rule state.

And some people will say we're not strictly a Dillon rule state.

But for the most part, localities are the creation of the state legislature.

And they have a great deal of say-so over what happens within towns and communities and cities within.

But... And the but is what people power can do in terms of changing things.

Now, what we have to remember is that the Dillon rule has some racial dynamics to it.

The fact that it has been used in the past to exercise control over especially majority black towns.

And we have to keep that historical fact in mind as we're looking at the relationship between these local communities and the legislature.

And I believe that change can take place and it will take place, but it has to take place with the mobilization of not only the people in Taylortown, because there are resilient people.

I've actually had a chance to talk to some folk from Taylortown, and they have a great deal of pride in what they've been able to accomplish.

And they want to maintain the traditional values that they have there, at the same time realizing that change in terms of economic development has to take place.

You know, so--.

- And to your point, that was one thing that was resounding when I was there, is that they want the development to happen.

They just want to be in control of that development.

And so when--and I did reach out to the state legislator's office and did not hear back.

But when we think about both parties wanting growth, wanting development for a town like a Taylortown, who has that ultimate decision power, though?

Is it the people or is it the government?

- So I would say that there is a power that they both hold.

So the technical power resides with our government.

That is just the way that our government is shaped.

But there is the power within the people that can influence that decision-making, and we've seen it in real time.

And so that is one of the things that we want to ground here, is that the technical decision-making power does rely with our government, but the people do have the power to band together and to influence that decision-making, to sway it another way that makes more sense for their community.

Because if you see in the video, all they were doing was trying to do change in the right way, in an equitable way, that honored the history, that honored the land.

And that is something that should be normalized across communities.

They should be able to welcome change while also honoring the folks that are there and the legacy that is in their area.

- Dr.

Hall, as viewers are watching and wondering, how does this story tie into upcoming elections, how do we, what are the decisions that voters make that impact decisions or instances like this?

- Well, quite obviously, your vote matters.

It matters who will be making the decisions in Raleigh and how those decisions reverberate down to the local level.

And just as one young lady mentioned within the video, your vote does matter.

And you do have legal power, you do have technical power, but there's also political power.

And what I would suspect Taylortown, the folk there, should be reaching out to other similarly situated towns to talk about how they can work together to exercise some degree of home rule where they would have some say-so, some ability to, if not veto what happens in the legislature that has an impact on their towns, but to have more of a political say in what happens in their towns.

- Yeah.

I want to take a moment to connect some dots.

Taylortown raises a bigger question.

If people see decisions about their communities being made or overturned somewhere else, do we just start to question just how much say that they really have?

So let's consider this last presidential election.

Voter turnout fell from the historic high that we saw in 2020, and the drop was larger among black Americans who registered to vote, but did not actually vote in 2024.

And then there's the question of why people didn't vote, right?

So census data gives us a window into that.

There's about 23.6 percent that said they simply weren't interested in voting.

Another 16.6 percent said they were just too busy or they had a scheduling conflict.

So let's talk about that.

When we think about where black voters believe their voice actually has impact or matters, what are some of those changes that are happening in our community that are causing folks not to vote, not to go out and exercise their voice?

I'll start with you.

- Yeah.

So I think a good point to raise is that our organization has done a lot of study around black voters and black voting behaviors.

And so one of the categories within that research is called rightfully cynical, and the operative word in that is rightfully.

And the reason for that is because a lot of the focus is on the federal administration, so not a lot of room for state wins or local wins that may have happened right in their community.

A lot of their reliance on political changes comes from their view of the federal administration.

And so a lot of them, you may hear commentary like, you know, something--you know, nothing changed under the Obama administration, nothing's changing for me right now.

So that's coming from an economic lens primarily.

So a lot of folks are like, the cost of living is still high, it's still expensive to get groceries, gas is on the rise.

And so they are living that day to day because we have to pay for these things at a consistent rate and on a consistent basis.

But it leaves room for the conversation of what is actually shifting in your community.

And there have been a lot of notable wins at the local level across the state, especially in the last couple of years, but oftentimes they get overshadowed, because there's a lot of conversation coming from the federal level by way of news and the way that they receive information.

And so I think a lot of that is due to them just having a heavier focus on the federal level and not really taking the time to pay attention to what's happening state and local, which is actually impacting their day to day much more than what's happening at the federal level.

- Dr.

Hall, as much as we talk about how important it is to vote local, what is not connecting with folks?

I know you wanted to add on to what-- - Yeah, yeah, well, just in general, the crisis of our democracy is the fact that 90 million people who were eligible to vote didn't vote in this last presidential election.

And there's a lot of focus on what happens at the federal level.

Part of what we try to do in institutions of higher education, such as at the North Carolina Central University, is to connect the dots for folk, connect the dots for folk, to show them how the inability to buy groceries, the price of gas, waste management, the education system, why that is failing the communities, but to connect the dots, 'cause people do not see how these things are linked to what happens politically.

And so that's what we have to do.

We have to do it not just at the federal level, not just in terms of presidential elections, but certainly in local elections and certainly, especially with regard to Taylortown, with regard, with respect to the General Assembly, too.

- So I wanna bring that to the ballot.

We're all gonna be going out November for the midterm elections.

There are three things, though, that voters are being asked to decide on as it pertains to changes to the Constitution, to the state Constitution.

One involves state income tax.

Then we have another that involves local property taxes.

And then the third involves voter ID.

When we look at all three of these through the lens of our conversations today, I'm asking the same question.

Like, who actually gets to decide?

And I think in going out, and we have another part of this conversation where we go out to A&T, and we talk to folks who say, "Well, I don't know if my vote actually matters."

And so when you hear folks saying that, and they are unsure of if their vote actually decides the final decision on these changes, I ask the question, who actually gets to decide the changes?

- Yeah, so in respect to the constitutional amendment specifically, so constitutional amendments, once they reach the ballot, there is a requirement of a 50% plus one simple majority.

And so essentially, voters do get to decide that.

And if we reach that threshold of the 50% plus one, then those amendments will go into play and will go into our state Constitution.

So there is voter power within that decision.

Now how they get on your ballot is a different process.

Most of the time, the process that's chosen is the legislative process, because you need three-fifths of both chambers in order to be able to put a constitutional amendment in front of a voter.

And a lot of times, legislatures choose that process because the other process is you would have to have a whole constitutional convention, and that's much harder to come by, a larger threshold that you have to reach.

And so that's what happened here, is that there was a three-fifth majority in both chambers in order to bring these amendments to the ballot.

And to your point, there are three very critical amendments that folks do need to pay attention to.

- Quickly, can you share about each one and the pros and cons to them?

And then I'm going to go to Dr.

Hall.

- Sure.

And so I will start with voter ID.

And so a lot of folks, you know, they're like, well, we already have voter ID laws.

And we do.

And that is kind of the point, is that we already have these protections here in North Carolina, but this would enshrine it into our Constitution.

And what we want folks to understand is once something is enshrined into the Constitution, it is a much harder process to walk it back.

And so when we think about we're voting new folks in this fall, what if they have different ideas?

What if they have better ideas than the ones that we are being presented with right now?

They will have a harder time to walk those back.

And so that is the voter ID amendment.

- Well, in terms of voter ID, that's part of a national movement to enshrine voter ID not just in state constitutions, but also, of course, we know that there was a big push on the federal level to enshrine it in national law.

This is a solution looking for a problem.

Voter fraud is something that rarely happens in the United States.

I think over a 20-year period, the number of cases that were proven to be voter fraud was fairly minuscule.

And we know that politically this is targeted at certain groups.

And it's just a form of voter suppression.

And it's just a mean-spirited way, in my opinion, of trying to target the communities of color, young voters, and other voters that might not support a particular political party.

And we've had this debate for a long time, but this will enshrine it in our Constitution.

And that's the issue that we're confronted with.

And we need more education on these things.

And it's at the bottom of the ballot.

And a lot of people don't vote the entire ballot.

And that's another issue that we need to talk about, too.

- So let's bring in the tax changes.

So we've got income tax and property tax.

Explain those two.

- Sure.

So, as you know, with the income tax, the income tax amendment is proposing a reduction in an income tax cap from 7 percent, where it currently stands, to 3.5 percent.

And so some of the concerns with that amendment is the coupling of this amendment coming to pass with the already reduction of the corporate income tax that we're facing.

So right now we have a very low corporate income tax, anywhere about 2.5 percent.

And by 2030, that income tax rate for corporations will be zero.

And so there will be a reality in just a couple of years, if we stay on this same trajectory, that corporations will not be paying taxes.

But we still will be.

And so when we think about- - And will our taxes be higher as a result?

- Absolutely.

So then, because the money has to come from somewhere.

And so when we're thinking about our income taxes, but also fines and fees, other ways that we collect tax here in the state, those things will go up.

And we know that those things have a history of disproportionately impacting working-class families and folks that cannot afford yet another increase in their tax rates.

- Just a few minutes left.

I want to bring Dr.

Hall back in.

When you talked about education and understanding, but sometimes there's ambiguous language that causes confusion.

And I think I feel, or maybe this is just me, some of the language around the changes are confusing.

And that doesn't help a voter understand what they're voting for.

What do you do in that instance?

- Some would argue that confusion is the point, that that's a part of the strategy of voter suppression, is to confuse people as to whether they can use mail-in ballots, what kind of IDs are permissible.

And so this further alienates people from the political system.

It makes them more cynical about the political system, because they throw their hands up and say, I'm just not going to participate.

And that's why voter education is such an important component of voter empowerment, not just voter registration, not just get out to vote, but informing the voter about what the issues are and what the consequences are, and how your vote in concert with the votes of many others can really make a difference and can sway elections.

- Where can folks find more information about the amendments and educate themselves before they go to the ballot?

- Absolutely.

So we have a year-round voter site called safevoternc.org.

And so on that site, you can find our amendment resource.

You can also find a resource called What's on the Ballot?

And that is a resource where we connect the positions to everyday issues that people care about.

And so that site is up year-round.

We also have portions of the site that connect you back to the State Board of Elections site if you need to check your registration status.

And we also have information and resources around election protection as well.

And so, again, safevoternc.org is a website where you can find more information about this year's ballot and the constitutional amendments.

- And then as a professor, what are you doing with your students?

- Urging them to register to vote, to bring 10 people with them when they register to vote, to participate in early voting and informing them about the important dates and the issues and why it is so important for them to participate.

And again, connecting the dots.

Connecting the dots.

This is your quality of life over here.

And these are the political decisions that impact your quality of life.

And that is the charge that we have as educators.

- Wonderful.

Dr.

Miller, Dr.

Hall, thank you both for bringing clarity to us.

And I want to thank you for watching this 2026 election special.

Make sure that you join us next week as we continue the conversation with our expert panelists answering important questions about your vote, your voice, and the 2026 midterm elections.

Keep up with the show and engage with us on Instagram using the hashtag #BlackIssuesForum.

You can also find our full episodes on pbsnc.org/blackissuesforum and on the PBS video app.

I'm Kenia Thompson.

I'll see you next time.

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