WASHINGTON (AP) — When North Carolina drew its most recent political maps, state leaders split a historically black university in Greensboro into two congressional districts that critics say diluted the voting power of African Americans on campus.

Lawmakers defended it as partisan gerrymandering — a tactic that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block Thursday. But opponents cite it as a classic example where political gerrymandering can have racial consequences.

"It's partisan, but it's also based on race as well," said Kylah Guion, a junior at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, Nort...