NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE
NORTH CAROLINA STATE CONFERENCE
114 W. Parrish Street, Second Floor Ÿ Durham, North Carolina 27701
866-626-2227 Ÿ 919-682-4700 Ÿ FAX 919-682-4711
www.naacpnc.org www.ncprosecutorialmisconduct.com www.hkonj.com
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II Amina J. Turner
President Executive Director
Immediate Release
9 November 2010
Contact: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President, 919-394-8137
Al McSurely, Esq., Communications Press & Publicity Chair, 919-389-2905
The Charlotte- Mecklenburg School Board Should Stop the Division and Just Do Right
By Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II
The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP stands with our Charlotte-Mecklenburg Branch President, Rev. Kojo Nantambu, and all NAACP members, parents and other concerned people of good will who are demanding the divisive policies of their School Board be halted. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board first put in place policies that led to a resegregation of this once proud school system. And now it wants to force inner-city kids and their parents to bear the brunt of closing down under-populated schools. The Board claims this is purely an economic decision. But this is a flimsy pretext–everyone can see the decision is about race and poverty. Everyone can see it is trying to fix a mess that was created when the Board made commitments to certain “neighborhoods,” rather than making a commitment to the education of all children. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board, along with school boards across North Carolina and the nation, should stop their gimmicks and games. The job of every School Board is to provide every child a high quality, constitutional, diverse, well funded public education. If educational leaders kept this in mind, then we could close prisons…not schools. Talk about saving money!
The NAACP believes there are eight inter-locking steps to educational success:
1. Stop resegregation and promote diversity.
2. Provide equity in funding.
3. Provide high quality teachers and smaller classrooms.
4. Provide high quality leadership teams.
5. Provide high quality 21st century facilities.
6. Focus on Math, Science, Reading and History.
7. Promote parental and community involvement.
8. Address disparities in graduation, drop out suspensions and achievement levels among minority and poor children.
Education research says this will work. Anything less is playing games, using political gimmicks to address serious problems. The education of our children is not a game. Nothing less than these principles that we stand on in the NAACP is acceptable. We intend to fight for our children and in doing so, fight for all children and their educational future. Without a commitment of excellence for all, one judge has already said it is a form of educational genocide. I have said it in an attempt to legalize child abuse by promoting policies that we know have a racial and class disparate impact on certain children. The NAACP will use every tool at our disposal–mass education, litigation and legislation — in this struggle. We will stand for our children. We will never turn back.
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Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President
Mrs. Amina Josey Turner, Exec Dir
NC NAACP
P O Box 335
Durham, NC 27702
919-682-4700 V 919-682-4711 F
1-866-NC-NAACP
