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North Carolina

Local Activists Call Attention To Housing Rights

Graham, North Carolina - Amy Cooper said she and a handful of other activists came together at Court Square in Graham on Wednesday for an event touting tenants' rights while decrying evictions.  "A lot of landlords take advantage of people not knowing their rights, so one of the things we want to do is push tenants' rights so people know what they can and can't do as a tenant," Cooper said.  Cooper's thoughts echo criticism from housing advocates across the country. Last Wednesday, housing rights advocates held simultaneous nationwide demonstrations in the hopes of sparking a paradigm shift away from the current system of landlords using evictions as a threat against tenants. Many argue housing is a human right and the system should reflect that. 

An Apology For A Massacre

Greensborough, NC - Public accountability for their actions often awaits evildoers who hurt people. For many who spilled onto the streets in a mood of relief, jubilation and celebration at the election news of a soon-to-be outgoing president, a day of reckoning for the nation had come. Only weeks earlier, a Southern city cautiously enacted its overdue moral reckoning with an apology for a massacre. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous proclamation, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” is an applicable lens for these events. On November 3, 1979, in Greensboro, North Carolina, at approximately 11:20 on a bright Saturday morning, nine carloads of Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis drove into the...

Fast-Food Workers Demanded — And Won — COVID Protections

Durham, NC - In early September, Jamila Allen led a group of 18 co-workers out the front doors of Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers to protest the lack of safety measures taken by management in dealing with COVID-19. A coworker had tested positive for COVID-19, but the restaurant had refused to pay workers for time to quarantine. The strikers demanded a professional deep cleaning of the store, two weeks paid leave to self-quarantine, and $15 per hour hazard pay. Outside the eatery in West Durham, workers at the national fast-food chain were joined by dozens of supporters from the Fight for $15, the Poor People’s Campaign, and other local groups, who joined in chants of “I believe that we will win” and “Put some respect on my check.” 

Why A 58-day vigil Is Going On Outside The Governor’s House

Demonstrators gathered outside the Executive Mansion on Sunday to demand that Gov. Roy Cooper use his powers of pardon and clemency to protect people who are incarcerated during the pandemic. Members of Decarcerate Now NC, a coalition of organizations which say they’re working to end to mass incarceration, have been holding daily vigils outside the governor’s mansion since Election Day and plan to continue through Jan. 1, when Cooper begins his second term. That’s a total of 58 days. “We stand vigil to bring attention to your Administration’s ongoing failure to prioritize and appropriately protect Black lives — indeed, any lives incarcerated in state prisons — from Covid-19.

Racist Roots: Origins Of North Carolina’s Death Penalty

Right now, our nation is in a moment of reckoning with our criminal punishment system. We are finally seeing clearly what should have been obvious long ago: The system has its knee on the necks of Black people. In North Carolina, as we begin a long-overdue conversation about the future of police and prisons, we must confront the punishment that sits at the top of that system, condoning all its other cruelties — the death penalty. When citizens have acclimated to the state strapping a person to a gurney and killing them in front of an audience, it becomes harder to shock them.

At North Carolina Colleges, ‘Safe Jobs Save Lives’

The UNC-Chapel Hill administration’s communications team finally acknowledged the spread of infection half an hour later and issued a campus alert.  The administrators had spent months fighting students, workers, local and state governments, the N.C. Department of Health, virtually every local community group — and the very concept of human dignity — to push forward an in-person reopening. The University of North Carolina, a statewide system of 16 colleges and universities, wields considerable indirect power over the entire higher education sector in the state. This is reflected in the in-person openings underway at nearby private schools Duke University and Elon College.  All around North Carolina, workers united are saying, “Safe Jobs Save Lives!”

Campus Workers Sue UNC System Over Unsafe Working Conditions

North Carolina university employees are suing the UNC System, saying working conditions are unsafe as tens of thousands of students return to campuses during the coronavirus pandemic. “Essential workers across UNC System campuses continue to report to work with inadequate protective equipment to ensure their safety,” the UE150, NC Public Service Workers Union said in a statement Monday. Some university employees, including housekeepers and other campus workers, are provided one or two masks per week and many don’t have access to face shields or gowns, according to the union.

Witness Against Torture Prison Hunger Strike

Shine’s hunger strike is now in its second week and the next few days of pressure are critical!  So WAT family: Contact Shane Tharrington and demand Shine's (Joseph Stewart #0802041) release from solitary even if you're not fasting in solidarity: shane.tharrington@ncdps.gov & 984-255-6100.  The Call-to-Action gives you history and details to elaborate on.  Tell Mr. Tharrington: "As a member of Witness Against Torture, I stand resolute against the use of solitary confinement. Re-classify Joseph "Shine White" Stewart because solitary confinement is torture. "

Newly Released Video Shows Jailed Black Man Died In Custody

Newly released video footage shows a Black man in custody in medical distress, repeatedly telling corrections officers he couldn't breathe as officers struggled to detain him after he experienced a medical event in a North Carolina jail two days before he died. Five corrections officers and one nurse have since been fired and charged with involuntary manslaughter for their role in the death of a 56-year-old James Elliott Neville, who died on December 4, 2019. The video, released this week as part of a judge's order, depicts events that occurred at the Forsyth County Jail on December 2, 2019, two days before his death and one day after he was arrested on assault charges by the Kernersville Police Department, according to the report.  The Forsyth County Medical Examiner said Neville's death was caused by "complications of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury due to cardiopulmonary arrest due to positional and compressional asphyxia during prone restraint." The Greensboro, North Carolina, man had been revived several times, both at the jail and in the hospital before he entered a coma and ultimately died.

Occupy The Block For The Neville Family On Third Week

On day 22 of Occupy the Block #OccupyWSNC, demonstrators gathered at Bailey Park at 10 am. At 3 pm, approximately 300 occupiers, supporters, and the Neville Family gathered on the sidewalk outside the Forsyth County Courthouse for the Rally of Support for the Neville Family. Activists spoke of love for the Neville family and called for transparency and accountability from our officials. Sean Neville offered words of thanks for the movement. Meanwhile, officers lined the windows at the entrance of the courthouse. Bike cops stalked the gathering, following the group even as they marched and threatened participants if they stepped off the sidewalk.

Asheville Approves Reparations For Black Residents

Asheville, NC - In an extraordinary move, the City Council has apologized for the city's historic role in slavery, discrimination and denial of basic liberties to Black residents and voted to provide reparations to them and their descendants. The 7-0 vote came the night of July 14. "Hundreds of years of black blood spilled that basically fills the cup we drink from today," said Councilman Keith Young, one of two African American members of the body and the measure's chief proponent. "It is simply not enough to remove statues. Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature," Young said. The unanimously passed resolution does not mandate direct payments. Instead it will make investments in areas where Black residents face disparities.

Raleigh Black Lives Matter Protest Reaches 35th Day

For the 35th consecutive day, Black Lives Matter protesters chanted, made speeches, waved signs and marched across downtown Raleigh on Saturday. They are protesting SB 168 which lawmakers passed nearly unanimously with no discussion in the wee hours of the morning on June 27, would shield death investigation records from the public when they are shared with the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Those records are now considered public under state law.  “The fact that they’re trying to ... pass this over on us and act like it’s no big deal like they’re just gonna ignore us — that is why we’re so much more ready to fight anything that comes our way,” said Lauren Howell, 21, an organizer with the group N.C. Born. “Because we know it’s not right.”

Black Power Through Participatory Budgeting

I’ve spent the last two and half years learning and implementing participatory budgeting in New York City, first from within the New York City Council and now as a staff member of Participatory Budgeting Project. As members of Black Youth Project 100, I and my colleague Maria Hadden have presented on participatory budgeting as a policy for Black self-determination and liberation on various occasions and to varying audiences. Can you imagine my excitement when, on August 1st, The Movement for Black Lives released a robust policy agenda titled A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom and Justice — and included a bold solution for more community control through participatory budgeting? Contained in the policy agenda are some things we want to see get done.

North Carolina Court Strikes Down State Legislative Map As Unconstitutional Gerrymander

(Reuters) - A North Carolina court on Tuesday struck down the Republican-drawn state legislative map as an illegal partisan gerrymander and gave lawmakers two weeks to enact new district lines for next year’s elections. A three-judge panel in Wake County Superior Court said the state Senate and state House district lines discriminated against Democratic voters in violation of the state constitution’s free elections, equal protection and free speech clauses. The decision is a victory for election reform advocates considering legal challenges to partisan gerrymandering in state courts despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year blocking such cases in federal courts.

Report Back From An Anti-ICE Protest In NC

Over the last week, there has been a wave of ICE arrests across North Carolina. Perhaps the most notable is a workplace raid that took place at Bear Creek Arsenal, a firearms manufacturing plant, but arrests have also been made outside a high school in Durham, and several dozen reported in Charlotte. The pattern is relatively obvious, ICE is targeting the everyday activities of working-class people and terrorizing them and their families. Thanks, by the way, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for helping to reopen the federal government, the immigrant community really missed ICE, but hey, we all have to make compromises, right?
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