Basketball Blocking Democracy: Chris Suggs Still Fights for Kinston

Basketball Blocking Democracy: Chris Suggs Still Fights for Kinston

From Built By Us by Democracy North Carolina

February 25, 2026 · 26 min · Season 6 · Episode 5

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges facing democracy in Kinston, North Carolina, particularly in relation to basketball and gerrymandering.

Kinston, North Carolina is known as basketball heaven – producing more NBA players per capita than anywhere else in the world. But right now, democracy is under attack in the same town that gave us Brandon Ingram, Cedric Maxwell, and Jerry Stackhouse. A polling site in a densely populated, predominantly Black neighborhood might be removed to avoid conflicts with high school basketball games. Meanwhile, Kinston just got carved out of Congressional District 1 as part of a mid-decade gerrymander...

Topics covered

  • basketball
  • democracy
  • gerrymandering
  • Kinston
  • North Carolina

Keywords

  • NBA
  • polling site
  • Black neighborhood
  • high school basketball

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Kinston, North Carolina, Congressional District 1

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