As Baltimore County’s Redistricting Commission nears the end of its work – it has until June 13 to recommend district lines for a county council expanding from seven to nine seats in the next election – some advocates are rallying behind the so-called “Woodlawn C” map.

On the surface, it looks like progress – two super-majority Black districts and one district made up of various racial and ethnic minorities compared to the current map of a single majority Black district and six majority white districts.

But look closer and it’s clear: however well-intentioned, the plan is a trap.

The Woodlawn approach began with a focus on the county’s west side. Woodlawn C would pack Black voters into two districts – 74.6% Black in Woodlawn and 60.4% Black in Randallstown – while allowing six of the remaining nine districts to be 60-78% white.

It’s a map where white voters, who currently make up just over 50% of the county’s population and will undoubtedly shrink in size in the future, would have a majority in two-thirds of the council districts.

That’s classic gerrymandering with the aim of concentrating voters of color into a few districts to preserve white control everywhere else.

• The Redistricting Commission will hold a public meeting tonight at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers in Towson, live-streamed over Webex.

Woodlawn C may appear to offer a symbolic win, but it locks in the structural inequality rooted in decades of housing and other forms of racial discrimination. And it clearly undermines the goals that the Voting Rights Act was meant to uphold.

True equity isn’t about maximizing Black percentages. And no map guarantees the outcome of an election. It’s about spreading Black and brown opportunity for influence in keeping with their share of the population. And that comes through coalition-building, not isolation.

The 3-1-5 map proposed by Fair Maps advocates – three majority Black, one majority minority, five majority white – better reflects the county’s diversity of 52% white, 30% Black and 18% other minorities.

A 2-2-5 alternative proposed by Lisa Belcastro, a Pikesville resident who represents existing councilmanic District 2 on the Redistricting Commission, could also meet Voting Rights Act standards with some adjustments towards greater proportional representation.

We believe both provide a more equitable solution than either Woodlawn C or the commission’s original draft map.

Woodlawn C adds a narrow (51.1%) majority minority district on the east side, while the majority-minority district originally proposed by the commission is on the west side and is actually majority white in voting age population.

Some people want to rewrite how we count Black voters in an effort to reduce the appearance of “packing,” arguing multiracial individuals shouldn’t be included in the Black Voting Age Population (BVAP). That logic would erase Barack Obama and Kamala Harris from the equation.

The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that all individuals who identify as Black, including those of mixed race, must be counted. Attempts to exclude them are legally indefensible and morally dangerous.

Even worse is the idea that more packed Black districts automatically mean more minority voting power. In Bush v. Vera, the Supreme Court ruled that three Texas congressional districts violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The districts were drawn to be majority Hispanic and Black, but the court found that packing minority voters into a district would actually deprive them of equal participation in electoral politics. That’s what Woodlawn C offers.

Let’s not Repeat the Past

The current Council consists of six white men and one Black man. Last November, county voters overwhelmingly passed a charter amendment to expand the seven-member council by two seats starting in the 2026 election.

Set up to redraw the expanded election map, the Redistricting Commission said its goal is “representation that better reflects the diversity of the county and ensures the federal Voting Rights Act is at the forefront of its work, while also giving due consideration to communities.”

Two super-Black districts doesn’t fix that. Instead, it would repeat the mistakes of the past.

Baltimore County deserves a map that reflects its people not just in skin color, but in political power. That means rejecting maps that divide and diminish, and standing up for one that builds lasting coalitions.

The Redistricting Commission must recommend a fair and forward-looking proposal to the council on June 13. The county’s future depends on it.
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• Peta Richkus served in state government as a former secretary of the Maryland Department of General Services and a Maryland Port commissioner. Sharonda Huffman is a manager for a housing nonprofit and is a 2026 candidate for the county council. Both are members of the Baltimore County Coalition for Fair Maps.