NAACP

Please go to Change.org to sign the petition opposing a charter school in Orange County. This school project is organized by a group that has not improved achievement elsewhere in the state. It is funded by some fairly right wing politicos, not the right group to foster good educational programs.

This will be approved on Feb 1-2 unless there is clear opposition, with many letters written, so hurry.

http://www.change.org/petitions/mr-william-harrison-and-the-north-caroli...

RALEIGH --

North Carolina's largest civil rights group has filed a public records request for information on a letter regarding the Racial Justice Act signed by almost all the state's district attorneys.

Rev. William Barber, the leader of the state NAACP, said Friday the group wants to know if the 43 elected district attorneys who signed the letter knew what was in it...

Less than a year is left until the 2012 national election, and nonbelievers in democracy are taking no chances. Right now, North Carolina is one of twenty-one states that have passed or are trying to pass legislation to close the early voting period. Many in the NC General Assembly are still trying to pass a bill that would add North Carolina to the auspicious list of states that require a voter ID to combat nonexistent voter fraud. In every state where this legislation is present, the goal is the same: to make voting more difficult.

43 years later, echoes of the gunshot can still be heard:

Union supporters who want to repeal a 1959 North Carolina law denying collective bargaining rights for public employees will speak out through silence on the 43rd anniversary of the slaying of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The state chapters of the AFL-CIO and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are helping to organize a 15-minute silent protest at noon Monday across the street from the Legislative Building in Raleigh.

Exploring violations of NC's Open Meetings Law:

The N.C. Court of Appeals on Thursday will hear arguments about the outcome of a lawsuit that accuses the Wake County school board of violating the state's open meetings law during its efforts to eliminate the use of diversity in student assignments.

There's no doubt that Margiotta and his cohort attempted to skirt the law to keep "animals" out of these meetings, but there is doubt the COA will be able to see through Kieran Shanahan's smokescreen clearly enough to make the proper finding.

On October 2, 2010, tens of thousands of people representing labor, civil rights, faith communities and a myriad of progressive organizations will march in solidarity at the Nation's Capitol in order to protect our jobs, our education and our economy. Many of these marchers will come from North Carolina. Won't you join us?

Sign up to become part of One Nation Working Together NC below. If you need bus information for your area, please include your request at the end of the pledge.

If you cannot come with us, please consider donating a scholarship so someone else can go!

TAKE THE PLEDGE

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE5JTkV0dWx5bmVadmdudVp...

Buses are leaving from Asheville, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Raleigh, Winston-Salem Wilmington, and many more (see below for a partial list). We will be publishing more bus information as it becomes available. Please check www.progressivedemocratsnc.org for updates.

Today over 700 people took to the streets in downtown Raleigh to protest the specter of segregation raised by Republican members of the Wake County School Board.

This public mass non-violent demonstration led by the NC NAACP formed against the dismantling of the nationally acclaimed socio-economic student assignment plan by the new anti-diversity caucus of the Wake County Board of Education. Marchers demanded that Wake County Schools and all school districts in North Carolina provide a constitutional, high quality, well-funded, diverse school for every child.

As he did last year, Rev. Dr. William Barber of the North Carolina NAACP gave his Christmas Message on the steps of the North Carolina Community College System. Rev. Barber reflected on Luke 2:7, in which Joseph and Mary are told there is no room in the inn. He called on the leaders of our state to have the courage to "open up these doors and let our children come in."

Don't you think that innkeeper might look back and wish that he had let Jesus into his his inn? Do we want to make the same mistake?

This is not just a case of voter supression. This is a political hot potato that some media and even some voting activists won't talk about or report on because it offends some of their base. But wrong is wrong! SIX days ahead of the North Carolina primary a "Jim Crow" effort was aimed at supressing the African American vote. A group called Women's Voices Women's Vote (WVWV) has been placing robocalls to voters across North Carolina that leads voters to think that they are not registered to vote. The North Carolina NAACP has filed a complaint and also alerted the Department of Justice.

Following a page from the national GOP playbook, nearly all of the Republican gubernatorial candidates refused to show up Saturday for the NAACP debate.

African-Americans make up more than 20 percent of North Carolina’s population.

Republicans would rather ignore 1.1 million African-American voters than address concerns about education, health care, jobs, and safe communities.