North Carolina

the Web Editors 2-14-2017

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On Feb. 16 immigrants in Washington, D.C., plan to go on strike from work and other economic engagements, creating a “Day Without Immigrants,” just as immigrants in Wisconsin did on Feb. 13, reports the Washingtonian.

A flyer advertising the “Day Without Immigrants” calls for immigrants to avoid shopping, going to work, and eating at restaurants.

Image courtesy NC NAACP.

On Feb. 11, more than 80,000 people gathered in Raleigh, N.C., for the largest Moral Monday march yet — challenging Trumpism in Washington, D.C., and legislative overreach in our state. More important than the numbers, though, are people’s convictions: Principle, not party, is the reason why we march. We march because our deepest religious traditions have trained our bodies to stand up in the face of injustice.

Image via Yonat Shimron/ RNS

“Since Day No. 1, we’re trying to fight the hate and sadness with doing good and being positive,” said Namee Barakat, Deah’s father. “That makes us feel better and it makes our wounds a little easier.” 

 

Image via RNS/Reuters/Jonathan Drake

A deal has fallen apart to undo the North Carolina law known as the “bathroom bill,” in a sign of the state’s bitter political divide.

The state’s legislature was called into a special session on Dec. 21, to consider repealing the law known as HB2 after months of pressure, including lost jobs and canceled sporting events and concerts.

Mark Lockard 12-21-2016
advent candles

If irony wasn’t dead, I’d say how ironic it was that in the midst of this season of Advent, in which we look to the nebulous future, a time-not-yet shaped by our ability to be patient and hopeful and tense and a bit sorrowful about what we cannot see but hope we shall soon see, our societal life is filled with those for whom there is no future.

the Web Editors 12-16-2016

N.C. Democratic governor-elect Ray Cooper.

Hundreds of people gathered in the state's capital during the special session in protest of what they describe as a “power grab.”

 

the Web Editors 11-30-2016

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On Sept. 20 Scott was shot and killed by Vinson after officers surrounded Scott’s SUV, parked in front of Scott’s apartment, and Scott exited his vehicle. District Attorney Andrew Murray stated that Scott exited his SUV while armed and ignored commands from officers to drop his gun. However, Scott’s relatives stated that Scott was reading a book in his car, waiting for his son to arrive from school. Both Scott’s relatives and witnesses of the shooting reported that Scott was unarmed. Police stated that a gun was found at the scene.

the Web Editors 11-16-2016

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The dismantling of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by the Supreme Court and conservative state elected officials may be a major reason behind Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. presidential election win, reports ThinkProgress. This was the nation’s first presidential election since the Voting Rights Act's implementation 50 years ago in which the act didn’t provide full protection to voters of color.

Image via RNS/Yonat Shimron

On the day after the election, Mervat Aqqad’s 7-year-old son woke up and asked who got elected president.

When Aqqad broke the news to Ibrahim, a second-grader at the Al-Iman School in Raleigh, his first question was, “Do we have to move now?”

Michael Schulson 11-11-2016

Image via Philip Meyer/Shutterstock.com

“You are in a year of greatness. You are in a year of restoration,” White preached to a group of some 100 worshippers, almost all of them African-Americans. They had gathered in a large, windowless room at Faith Assembly Christian Center, a simple building in a predominantly black neighborhood of Durham.

Asked afterward about her ties with the president-elect, she declined to be interviewed “out of respect for the church.”

Andrew Simpson 11-08-2016

A mural in Winston-Salem honoring the history of the civil rights movement. Image via MC Lewis/Shutterstock.com.

To say that HB2 has tarnished the state’s reputation would be a profound understatement. Those of us who have traveled out of the state (or the country) have become accustomed to some version of the same response when we introduce ourselves as native North Carolinians: “Oh, you’re from the bathroom state!”

No. We are not this.

the Web Editors 11-01-2016

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You should call the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law hotline 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) if you, or someone you know, are notified that you can’t vote, or can vote only under certain circumstances, and you suspect that unlawful practices are to blame for the difficulty.

Likewise, you should call the hotline if you notice at the poll any of the following eight possible signs of voter suppression, or if you notice blatant voter intimidation.

Jim Wallis 9-22-2016

Footage before Terence Crutcher was shot and killed by police. 

The protests that break out on the streets in the aftermaths of killings are not just about the latest individual case, but the lack of trust in a system of policing and criminal justice that justice needs to be put back into. The protests are about accountability in an age where police who use excessive force and act outside the law that they pledge to protect are almost never held accountable.

the Web Editors 9-21-2016

Facebook Live video of the protest from Fox46.

Protests erupted in Charlotte, N.C., after a black man was shot and killed by police while they were serving a warrant to a different person, according to The Root. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released a statement saying Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was armed and "posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject." Witnesses and family members say Scott was unarmed and holding a book, among them, the victim's daughter, Lyric Scott, who streamed via Facebook Live from the scene. 

Jim Wallis 9-08-2016

Thousands march in Raleigh, N.C. as part of the Moral Mondays Action against Voter Suppression and Special Interest groups takeover of state government.  by Susan Melkisethian / Flickr.com

Just this summer, a federal court struck down the North Carolina law, ruling that certain provisions of it “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.” The court added, “With race data in hand, the legislature amended the bill to exclude many of the alternative photo IDs used by African Americans” and “retained only the kinds of IDs that white North Carolinians were more likely to possess.” Yet, importantly, restrictive voter ID laws in a number of other states remain on the books, and will be in place for Election Day.

the Web Editors 8-19-2016

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As the presidential election tightens and polls show Trump and Clinton within a few points of each other in North Carolina, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory has appealed the Supreme Court to reinstate previous voter ID laws and cuts to early voting, according to NBC News. This comes in the wake of numerous voter-ID laws throughout the country being struck down in the courts this past month.

Moral March in Raleigh, N.C., in Februar 2014. EPG_EuroPhotoGraphics / Shutterstock.com

Since the summer of 2013, we have called this law — which the 4th Circuit struck down on Friday — a monster voter suppression bill. It was the first and the worst of many voter suppression measures to pass through state houses since the Supreme Court’s Shelby decision stripped the Voting Rights Act of its power to guarantee fair elections in this country. In many ways, it performed the new Southern Strategy of James Crow, Esq., which attempts to hold onto power as white voters become one among many minorities in this country. It is a strategy that necessarily depends on old fears, racism, and divide-and-conquer tactics.

the Web Editors 7-29-2016

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North Carolina’s requirement that voters present photo identification at the polls has long been called a disguised attempt to suppress the black vote. The Rev. William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove have called voting rights rollbacks, like the one in North Carolina, the “second career of James Crow, Esq.” for their racially discriminatory impact.

the Web Editors 7-21-2016

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The NBA is planning to pull the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, N.C. in protest of the “bathroom bill,” reports Yahoo Sports.

League sources told Yahoo Sports’ The Vertical that a formal announcement could come as soon as this week.

the Web Editors 5-13-2016
U.S. Mission Geneva / Eric Bridiers / Flickr

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Image via U.S. Mission Geneva / Eric Bridiers / Flickr

This new guidance from the Obama administration seeks to limit discrimination, harassment, and violence transgender students face, and restricts anything the school might do to question a transgender student's identity.