NAACP Makes its Case Before UN Council

Click for Article Online "We are asking the United Nations for two things," the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, president of the NAACP’s North Carolina State Conference, said in a statement Wednesday hailing the Geneva trip. "First, to investigate the attacks on voting rights by multiple state governments across the United States, and second, to ensure that the global community understands issues surrounding the attack on voting rights, and to help safeguard against these sorts of laws being replicated in other countries." NAACP Makes its Case Before UN Council Date: Thursday, March 15, 2012, 5:54 am By: Frederick Cosby, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com America’s oldest civil rights organization told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Switzerland Wednesday that changes in voting laws approved in several states threaten human and civil rights and is a direct response to President Barack Obama’s election in 2008. A delegation from the NAACP went before the council in Geneva and presented the argument that a spate of new laws passed in more than a dozen mostly Republican-controlled states is an effort to suppress the votes of minorities and others after they turned out in record numbers in 2008 to help elect America’s first black president. "These restrictions on the right to vote are a direct response to two developments: Unprecedented levels of political participation of black voters in the United States in 2008, and a reaction to the significant growth of communities of color as reflected in the 2010 Census," the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund’s Ryan Haygood told the council. NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous told the council that voters of color are under siege in the United States. "We are here today because in the past 12 months, more U.S. states have passed more laws pushing more U.S. citizens out of the ballot box than in any year in the past century," he said. "Historically, when people have come after our right to vote, they have done so to make it easier to come after so many of our rights that we hold dear." Roslyn M. Brock, the NAACP’s national board chairman, told the international panel that as of December 2011, some 14 states have passed 25 measures "designed to restrict or limit ballot access of voters of color, threatening to disenfranchise millions of eligible Americans." "Furthermore, since January 2012, additional states have introduced measures that, if enacted, would result in the disenfranchisement of even more racial and ethnic minorities," she said. Some of the measures either approved or under consideration by states require people to show some form of government-approved photo ID or provide proof of citizenship in order to register or vote. Other changes include limiting third-party voter registration drives, shortening or eliminating early voting, ending same-day voter registration and permanently forbidding convicted felons who’ve served their time from voting. Some states added unique provisions to their new voting laws. In Texas, photo ID from public, state-funded higher education institutions is insufficient for voting, but a state concealed gun license is okay. The Justice Department Monday blocked Texas from implementing its photo ID voting law, asserting that it discriminated against Hispanics. In Florida, the GOP-run state legislature decided to end voting on the last Sunday before Election Day. A bulk of the state’s black voters cast their ballots on that final Sunday in 2008 as part of a "Souls to the Polls" drive run by black churches. "These forms of disenfranchisement prevent those most in need of an advocate from the ability to elect someone who will represent their concerns: The need for a decent public education, for a health care system that addresses their specific demographic needs, as well as the creation of decent jobs, a functional criminal justice system and other basic human needs," Hilary Shelton, the NAACP’s senior vice president for advocacy, told the Human Rights Council. The NAACP delegation took two living examples with them to Geneva – U.S. citizens who told the panel how they would be adversely impacted by the new laws. "I struggle with the fact that as of today, I cannot vote in Virginia because this is where my offense occurred," said Kemba Smith Pradia, an author and lecturer who was sentenced to 24-1/2 years in prison on a first-time crack cocaine charge. After serving ….. six years behind bars, she was granted clemency by then-President Bill Clinton. "But in other states I wouldn’t have to deal with this issue. It is as if other states understand the need for forgiveness and the right of citizens not to be isolated from the rest of the population because they have been denied this human right." Austin Alex, a student at Texas Christian University, spoke to the Human Rights Council on behalf of America’s college students, who face the prospect of having a tough time voting in 2012 because of photo ID laws and the move by some states to scale back on the number of absentee ballots they mail out. "Other states have passed similar laws that no longer allow student ID to be acceptable form of voter identification," Alex said of Texas’ law. "I am concerned about the impact this will have on the right of students like me to vote." Established in 2006, the UN Human Rights Council consists of 47 members representing 13 countries from Africa, 13 from Asia, eight from Latin America and the Caribbean, seven from Western Europe and other states, and six Eastern European nations. The council has no direct power to change U.S. law or laws in any other nation. But with the weight of the United Nations behind it, it does have the ability to facilitate change indirectly through the international court of public opinion. "We are asking the United Nations for two things," the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, president of the NAACP’s North Carolina State Conference, said in a statement Wednesday hailing the Geneva trip. "First, to investigate the attacks on voting rights by multiple state governments across the United States, and second, to ensure that the global community understands issues surrounding the attack on voting rights, and to help safeguard against these sorts of laws being replicated in other countries."   ###

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News Release: NC NAACP, Democracy NC, LWV and Randolph Institute to Sue Over Redistricting Maps

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 2, 2011

For More Information: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President, 919-394-8137

Mrs. Amina Turner, Executive Director, 919-682-4700

Atty. Jennifer Marsh, Legal Redress Coordinator, 919-682-4700

Atty. Irv Joyner, Legal Redress Chair, 919-530-6293

Atty. Al McSurely, Communications Chair, lawyers@mcsurely.com

DURHAM – Yesterday, after it spent 60 days looking at a cleverly designed scheme to resegregate voters in North Carolina, the U.S. Department of Justice informed us that the U.S. Attorney General did not "interpose any objection" to the scheme. The next sentence in the letter said, "However, we note that Section 5 expressly provides that the failure of the Attorney General to object [to a redistricting scheme] does not bar subsequent litigation (our emphasis) to enjoin the enforcement of the changes."

That’s exactly what we shall do this Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. in Wake County Superior Court.  We are honored to be co-plaintiffs with the League of Women Voters, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and Democracy, NC — organizations that have had their hands on the Plow of Democracy for a long time — as we file a lawsuit asking our North Carolina courts to stop this cleverly disguised race-based scheme.

We shall sue the leaders of the NC House and Senate, Thom Tillis and Phil Berger.  They paid good taxpayer money to outside consultants to develop a scheme to resegregate minority voters and dilute our voting power.

These consultants know that blatant Jim Crow acts are illegal, so they came up with their James Crow schemes instead. Jim Crow used blunt tools. James Crow uses surgical tools to cut out the heart of black political power. James Crow uses high-tech, clever consultants to pick apart black communities block by block and increase the prosperity of a few Americans by trying to divide, segregate, and fool the rest of us.

We also name the State of North Carolina and the State Board of Elections as defendants in our lawsuit, since they are charged with carrying out this race-based plan.

We welcome the media to join us at the Wake County Courthouse at 10:00 a.m., Friday morning, November 4, 2011, where our attorneys from Southern Coalition for Social Justice will distribute copies of our filed complaint. A news conference will follow.

### 

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N.C. NAACP to contest ban on school lunch data – Sources: News & Observer

RALEIGH — The state NAACP is contesting a federal agency’s determination that Wake County can’t use subsidized lunch data to assign students to schools. (Read more) Note: See article and comments.

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Press Release: NC NAACP Statement Regarding Charter Schools and Vouchers

For Immediate Release

March 6, 2011 

NC NAACP Statement Regarding Charter Schools and Vouchers

For More Information: Rev. Dr. William, J. Barber, II, 919-394-8137
                                 Atty. Al McSurely, 919-389-2905

STOP THE LATEST EXTREMIST ATTACKS ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The North Carolina NAACP opposes using tax money for private academies; whether you call them vouchers or "tax credits," they take public money and pay people to abandon public schools.  We are also against lifting the cap on the number of charter schools here.  While some charter schools perform well for some students, they are not a universal solution for building strong school systems for all our students.  Studies show that, on the whole, charter schools do not out-perform traditional public schools.  They can also weaken school systems by "skimming off" middle-class students and ignoring the strength that comes through our diversity.   People have a right to send their children to private academies but the taxpayers are under no obligation to pay for it, especially when it undermines public education.

Using tax money for private academies is not a new idea.  In fact, people who support segregated schools have advocated tax-funded private academies since 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the NAACP in the historic Brown v Board of Education case, and declared: "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

Three months later, Gov. William Umstead set up a committee chaired by Thomas Pearsall, former N.C. House Speaker, whose mission was to circumvent the Brown decision. Gov. Umstead died suddenly, but his successor, Gov. Luther Hodges, created a smaller, all-white Pearsall Committee, which drafted plans disturbingly similar to those recently proposed by N.C. House Republicans.  The 1955 Pearsall Plan offered "tuition grants" [vouchers] to fund private academies with public money for white parents whose children might be assigned to desegregated schools.  The Pearsall scheme also empowered local school boards to bar African-American children from white schools by imposing endless bureaucratic hurdles for black parents.

Several white and black leaders and ministers challenged the legality and morality of the Pearsall Plan, but in 1956 the General Assembly adopted these segregationist schemes.  A state-wide referendum supported the segregationists by a margin of five to one, a margin expanded by voter suppression efforts in black majority sections of the state.

North Carolina conservative leaders continued to urge evasion of desegregation by using tax dollars to send children to all-white private academies. I. Beverly Lake, Sr., segregationist firebrand and father of Republican gubernatorial candidate I. Beverly Lake, Jr., urged that the state subsidize segregated private schools. Jesse Helms wrote an editorial, "There is Another Way," urging that North Carolina abandon public education and pay private academy tuition so parents could send their children to all-white schools, eventually privatizing the public schools entirely.

North Carolina never had to pay private school tuition because the Pearsall scheme helped the state successfully evade compliance with Brown for 17 years. The courts ruled the Pearsall Plan unconstitutional in 1969, but it was not until the early 1970′s that the NAACP’s persistent legal and political efforts began to allow children of every race to attend the same schools, at least in our larger cities and towns.  From a historical standpoint, our efforts to heal the scars of slavery and segregation have only just begun.

Sadly, the forces of division are now attempting to serve this sour, old wine in new bottles. Republican majority leader Paul Stam’s proposal, like the Pearsall Plan before it, seeks to divert public money to private academies, paying parents to withdraw their support from the public schools. Stam, whose "dream," he admits, is to do away with traditional public schools, currently proposes to use tax dollars for private academies. Republicans in the legislature also propose to repeal the laws against racial segregation in private schools and charter schools. School board members pushing "neighborhood schools" in Wilmington created 95 percent re-segregated schools, after which they petitioned their Republican legislators to "work to overturn" the measures in the Disadvantaged Students Supplemental Funding (DSSF) Law that allows the State Board of Education to withhold DSSF money from administrative units that practice "segregation of schools on the basis of race or socioeconomic status." North Carolina should reject all of these variations on the theme of funding private academies with public money or turning public schools into private academies, in effect, where the price of admission is the ability to pay a whopping mortgage, under the guise of "neighborhood schools."

Let us focus instead on helping all our public schools meet the higher expectations we have for all children.  We should promote: diversity in all our classrooms; equal funding for all our schools; high-quality teachers; smaller classes; first-rate facilities for every child; school leadership teams for under-performing schools; a renewed focus on math, science, reading, and history; greater parental and community support; a laser-like focus on disparities in dropout, suspension, and graduation rates; early childhood funding for poor children.

We should also press for complete funding under the Leandro v. State of North Carolina (1997) mandate that the North Carolina Constitution guarantees "every child of this state an opportunity to receive a sound, basic education in our public schools," regardless of whether that child grows up in an affluent suburb or a rural crossroads; and that each child has a constitutional right to an education that gives them the reading, writing, speaking, mathematical, and scientific skills and knowledge to "enable the student to compete on an equal basis with others in future formal education or gainful employment in contemporary society." Many of our re-segregated schools, especially in impoverished rural areas, do not meet that constitutional requirement; in fact, Republican Judge Manning has called the educational system in many of our poor counties "educational genocide."

In light of all that remains to be done, we categorically reject any privatization schemes for our public schools while we advocate a state-wide campaign for diverse, high quality, constitutional schools for all our precious children.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President,  NC NAACP, National Board Member
Ms. Carolyn Coleman, 1st Vice President, NC NAACP, National Board Member
Ms. Amina Turner, Executive Director, NC NAACP
Dr. Timothy Tyson, History Chair, NC NAACP

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NAACP Commends Gov. Perdue’s Veto of a Sick Law

For Immediate Release March 5, 2011   For More Information, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, 919-394-8137                                     Re: Statement on Gov. Perdue’s Veto of Right-Wing’s Attempt to Sabotage Health Care for All Gov. Beverly Perdue Vetoed a Sick Law                The North Carolina NAACP Conference of 120 Branches commends Gov. Beverly Perdue’s rejection of the sick bill that was passed by the Tea Party and other Extreme Right politicians who have hi-jacked Mr. Lincoln’s Republican Party.  The Governor is absolutely right when she rejected these zealots’ efforts to sabotage President’s Obama’s new program that provides health care for millions of poor and working people who need it.  The Governor is absolutely right when she said, "This is an ill-conceived piece of legislation that’s not good for the people of North Carolina."               "The Third Point in our Historic Thousands on Jones Street People’s Agenda," NC NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II said, "is Health Care for All. Right-wing zealots currently hold the once-proud Republican party hostage in a time of economic crisis.  Their sick law tried to stop the United States from joining with every other developed country in the world in providing access to health care for all our people.  Our Constitution, our religious principles, our history, and our commitment to take care of the least of these are healthy ideas.   And the Governor’s veto is a sign of a healthy new wind blowing across the State.  Thank you Governor Perdue."   ###

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Tata answers questions from students, parents – Source: ABC 11

WAKE COUNTY (WTVD) — Fresh off his meeting with an unhappy NAACP president, Wake Schools Superintendent Tony Tata took part in a forum to answer questions from students and parents Thursday night at the Martin Street Baptist Church in Raleigh.

Tata, who took office on Jan. 31, agreed to meet with the student group NC HEAT (Heroes Emerging Among Teens) after they publicly challenged him to talk with them. (Read more)

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Wake superintendent meets with NAACP – Source: WITN

Raleigh, N.C. — The Wake County Public School System’s new superintendent met with the state NAACP on Wednesday afternoon to talk about diversity and the school board’s controversial move away from the district’s longstanding practice of busing students. (Read more)

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NEWS CONFERENCE ALERT: Labor, Faith and Civil Rights Hold News Conference Outside NC Legislature In Solidarity With Wisconsin’s Public Workers And To Support The Repeal Of 95-98

News Conference Alert: Monday, 2/21, noon, 16 W. Jones Street                                            More Information Call:  Ms. Amina J. Turner, 919-682-4700                                                       Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, 919-837-3194                                                       Mr. Al McSurely, 919-389-2905                                                       Mr. Saladin Muhammad, 252-314-2363          Leaders from the Labor, Faith and Civil Rights Community will hold a News Conference in front of the State Legislature, 16 W. Jones Street, at noon on Monday, February 21.  They will express their solidarity with Wisconsin public workers whose unionization and collective bargaining rights are under attack and to call for repeal of the 1959 N.C. law that banned collective bargaining here.          Immediately following the News Conference, they will deliver to General Assembly leaders the International Labor Organization’s ruling that North Carolina’s prohibition against public employees collective bargaining rights violates international labor law.         The News Conference begins at noon at 16 W. Jones Street, Raleigh, Monday, February 21st.         Labor, Faith and Civil Rights Unite in Defense of the Public Sector Joint Statement of N.C. NAACP; Public Service Union-UE150; and a Growing List of Endorsers Released at Noon, Monday, Feb. 21, 2011, 16 W. Jones Street at News Conference The attacks on public sector worker rights to unionization and collective bargaining in Wisconsin and other states is part of a frontal attack on the entire public sector throughout the country. These attacks seek to put anti-labor,"right-to-work" laws on the books to weaken and eliminate vital public services provided by public sector workers–services that working and poor people depend upon everywhere. Public sector workers are the targets of these attacks. Their jobs, wages, pensions, and health care are all being cut. The communities of working and poor people are also the targets, since they will suffer deep cuts in vital services. Teachers and other public school workers, necessary for students to experience a diverse, high quality education, are the targets also. The attack on the public sector is especially devastating to African Americans. Public sector work is the source of at least 30% of Black employment. Public service pensions contribute significantly to the increasingly bleak economic stability of the minority community, in the face of massive unemployment, housing foreclosures, closing of public schools, and neighborhood gentrification. State and local government budget proposals are made in back-rooms. Governors and legislators hand out big tax breaks to their rich contributors in closed meetings. Their decisions to dismantle the public sector have no real input from working and poor people directly and negatively impacted by them. We need a democratically-created People’s Budget! We come together today representing the labor, faith and civil rights communities, united in our defense of the public sector. We are all part of the broader North Carolina progressive movement, organized around the 14-Point Agenda of the HkonJ Peoples Assembly. We call for the North Carolina legislature to repeal N.C.G.S. 95-98 which bans collective bargaining rights for public sector workers here. We call on the N.C. legislature and the U.S. Dept. of Labor to implement the ruling of the International Labor Organization (ILO) for North Carolina to establish a framework for collective bargaining for public workers. Today we submit the ILO ruling to the North Carolina Legislature as the first bill in a democratically produced Peoples Budget. As we create this Peoples Budget, we will involve thousands of people in their communities to draft bills and resolutions for their elected officials, to bring to the General Assembly to shape the budget for 2011. Text naacp to 46988 to receive updates and alerts from the NC NAACP/HKonJ Movement!

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Media Advisory – HK on J Press Conference: Strengthen Education, Don’t Balance Budget on Backs of Poor

Immediate Release

24 January 2011

Contact: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President, 919-394-8137

Atty. Al McSurely, Communications Chair,

lawyers@mcsurely.com

M E D I A A D V I S O R Y

HK on J Press Conference:

Strengthen Education, Don’t Balance Budget on Backs of Poor

This Tuesday, one day before the legislative session begins, speakers will urge lawmakers to defend schools, economic investments in North Carolina’s future, and civil rights for all

Raleigh (Jan. 25, 2010) – On the day before a critical legislative session begins, the Historic Thousands on Jones Street coalition has a message for lawmakers: preserve equal access to education and don’t balance the budget on the backs of the poor.

In advance of the coalition’s fifth annual peoples’ assembly march on Raleigh, which takes place Feb. 12, speakers will urge lawmakers to advance an agenda that promotes education, jobs, and equal justice.

The press event will be this Tuesday, Jan. 25, at 10 a.m. Speakers will gather across the street from the Legislative Building on Jones Street in downtown Raleigh (Bicentennial Plaza).

Representatives from the NC NAACP, the AFL-CIO, and a host of other community activist groups will hold a 10 a.m. press conference across from the Legislative Building. The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II will discuss part of the coalition’s 14-point agenda, including the need for more education, better schools, greater economic investments, and civil rights for all.

Among the key points speakers will address:

* Education equality: all students deserve a high-quality, diverse, constitutional education;

* A budget that works: lawmakers must not balance the budget on the backs of the poor, but create a moral document that creates jobs and prosperity for all North Carolinians;

* Civil rights for all: leaders must stand up against the undermining of civil rights laws that impact communities of color.

To emphasize the importance of education, young people will be well-represented at the press event. Details of the fifth annual "Historic Thousands on Jones Street" march on Feb. 12 will also be outlined.

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The Word–Disintegration The Colbert Report On Wake County Public Schools Comedy Central

Last night Comedian Stephen Colbert did a thing on Wake County Public Schools on Comedy Central talking about disintegration.

Watch 4:53 video.

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Wake County Public Schools

NC NAACP PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND OTHERS TO DELIVER LETTER TO NC GOP CHAIRMAN, TOM FETZER

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

27 october 2010

 

 

Contact:  Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President, naacpbarber@gmail.com

                    Mrs. Amina J. Turner, Exec Dir, 919-682-4700

                    Atty. Al McSurely, Communications Chair, 919-389-2905

 

MEDIA ADVISORY

 

WHO:      NC NAACP PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND OTHERS TO

                 DELIVER LETTER TO NC GOP CHAIRMAN, TOM FETZER

 

WHAT:    NEWS CONFERENCE

 

WHEN:    THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2010, 11:00AM

 

WHERE:  SIDEWALK – NC REPUBLICAN PARTY HEADQUARTERS

                  1506 HILLSBOROUGH STREET

                   RALEIGH, NC

 

The NC State Conference of the NAACP will hand-deliver its letter demanding that the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, Tom Fetzer, rescind and repudiate their recent racist mailer that distorts, misrepresents and lies about the Racial Justice Act passed by the NC General Assembly in 2009.

The State NAACP leadership will release the letters from the National NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous addressed to the Chairmen of the National Democratic and National Republican Parties related to this matter.

NAACP will also announce its Action Alert calling for NC citizens to call, mail and e-mail the NC Republican Party head, Tom Fetzer.

 

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–
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

NAACP LINKS TEA PARTY TO RACIST GROUPS–Wilmington Journal

SPECIAL TO
THE WILMINGTON JOURNAL

Saying that ”hate language, hate distortions and political ideology rooted in [white] supremacy ideas hinders us from having an honest debate…” about the nation’s pressing social and economic issues, Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of the NC NAACP, joined with national NAACP leaders Wednesday in releasing a new and chilling report detailing the alleged associations between the conservative Tea Party movement, and various white supremacist figures and groups. (Read more)

 

 

NAACP challenges Racial Justice Act mailer–Source: News 14

DURHAM – The North Carolina NAACP and other advocate groups are challenging a GOP mailer that they say distorts the Racial Justice Act.

The act allows people on death row to receive life in prison without parole if they can prove race played a role in their sentencing. (Read more)

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Racial Justice

 

State Republican Party Chairman Fetzer apologizes to Holliman over ad–News & Observer

State Republican Party Chairman Tom Fetzer has apologized to Democratic House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman if a recent GOP mailer caused his family any personal pain.

Fetzer said the two had a good conversation.

The state GOP had mailed a flier into Holliman’s district saying his support for the Racial Justice Act could allow death row inmates to "leave prison early and move in next door." (Read more)

NAACP files complaint against Wake schools – ABC 11

RALEIGH (WTVD) — Flanked by national NAACP president Ben Jealous, the Rev. William Barber announced Saturday the organization has taken legal action against the Wake County Public School System over its decision to end a nationally-recognized socio-economic diversity policy. (Read more)

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Wake County Public Schools