A coalition of Worcester residents representing Worcester Interfaith and the NAACP filed a federal voting rights lawsuit Monday that alleges the city’s at-large system for electing school committee members is discriminatory.
The lawsuit alleges that the use of an at-large system for all six seats on the Worcester School Committee is unfair to minority residents and violates the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.
“Worcester’s strength is its diversity, and an elected body should reflect that diversity," Isabel Gonzalez-Webster, executive director of Worcester Interfaith, told GBH News.
Nearly half the population of Worcester is Black or Hispanic, according to Gonzalez-Webster. The school committee members are all white.
Several groups have tried to work with the school committee, the school superintendent and the mayor, but Gonzalez-Webster said “they refused to see how there are unjust and racist policies.”
The Worcester city manager's office said in a statement to GBH News that it was aware of the lawsuit, but it declined to comment, citing "pending or ongoing litigation."
Fred Taylor, president of the local branch of the NAACP, said that Worcester is among the last large cities in the state to have an at-large electoral system, and that makes it hard for students and families to have fair representation.
“Worcester is predominantly minority students in our schools, and we have an outdated system that is unbalanced and unfair to the students and the citizens in the city,” Taylor said.
With an at-large voting system, School Committee candidates who receive the most votes city-wide win an election.
According to Taylor, Worcester has a history of people on the west side of the city, which is predominantly white and affluent, showing up in large numbers and electing all the school committee members. In the more diverse neighborhoods where candidates of color live, he said they are unable to win a seat on the school committee.
“ We feel that if we split this up into districts, we'll have more of an opportunity to have people who look like the children going to school representing them and making decisions about issues and policies that affect them,” he said.
Oren M. Sellstrom of Lawyers for Civil Rights, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said that "Worcester’s winner-take-all system deprives communities of color of the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice."
Courts have ruled that at-large systems such as Worcester’s are unfair and illegal, Lawyers for Civil Rights said in a statement.
In 2019, the City of Lowell settled a similar federal lawsuit filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights, and the city changed to a district-based election for both the School Committee and City Council.
Gonzalez-Webster said it’s unfortunate they have to file a lawsuit to make the city accountable. But "if we need to enter into litigation to make the change, to make our city stronger and more inclusive and create a government that's more representative of all our interests, then we'll do that,” she said.
