Leslie Winner papers

Collection

Identifier: MS0201

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Leslie Winner Papers deal with the legislative redistricting case of Gingles v. Edmisten. The collection contains much research material, correspondence, court documents, minutes from North Carolina General Assembly committee meetings, and notes taken by Winner. The collection basically divides itself into two categories, the plaintiff and the defendant. These two categories are again divided between the district court and the supreme court.

Dates

Creation: 1963 - 1993
Creation: 1981 - 1986

Creator

Winner, Leslie J. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections.

Biographical / Historical

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE -- Leslie J. Winner was born in Asheville, N.C., on October 24, 1950. She attended Brown University (A.B., 1972) and Northeastern University (J.D., 1976). Admitted to the bar in 1976, Winner came to Charlotte as a law clerk to US District Court Judge James B. McMillan. In 1977, she took a position with the law firm of Ferguson, Watt, Wallas, and Adkins. After working as a lobbyist for Legal Services of North Carolina in 1981, Winner became interested in voting rights. Later that same year she began the Gingles v. Edmisten case. Winner served as president of the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys in 1983. She withdrew her 1984 bid for a seat in the North Carolina General Assembly because of a conflict of interest as she prepared the Gingles case for the Supreme Court. However, Winner was elected to the Assembly in 1992 as a senator from Mecklenburg County.

Biographical / Historical

HISTORICAL NOTE -- The case of Gingles v. Edmisten challenged the existing voting districts for the North Carolina General Assembly as being racially biased. As the case began in 1981, Winner worked with prominent lawyer Julius Chambers, who had represented the plaintiffs in the landmark case on school busing, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education [see Julius Chambers Papers]. On June 30, 1986, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that North Carolina illegally weakened the African-American voters' power in state-house elections in Mecklenburg and five other North Carolina legislative districts.

Extent

9 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Papers of a Charlotte attorney relating to her successful representation of the plantiff in Gingles v. Edmisten, in which the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state of North Carolina illegally weakened the voting power of African-Americans in state house elections in Mecklenburg and five other legislative districts. Includes pleadings, briefs, transcripts of court proceedings, depositions and affidavits of witnesses, exhibits, research material and notes, maps, correspondence, statistics, and files on related cases.