BISHOP DR. WILLIAM J. BARBER II
EXCLUSIVE
BISHOP BARBER TO MEET
POPE FRANCIS
AT THE VATICAN ON
THANKSGIVING DAY
In
an exclusive interview, Bishop Dr. William J. Barber II, currently president of
Repairers of the Breach, a nonpartisan, nonprofit social advocacy group, has confirmed
that he and a delegation of
“moral, workers rights, anti-poverty and ecological justice advocates…”
will be meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thanksgiving Day.
Dr.
Barber gave his permission Sunday for the news of his Vatican visit to be
released now. He received the invitation from the Vatican last September, along
with invitations to visit England and Africa to join other labor and workers’
rights advocates.
“[The
Pope] wants to bless this movement, and meet with other activists from around
the world who are fighting against poverty,” Barber said then, indicating that
he would give his permission for it to be revealed in November.
Dr. Barber, who officially stepped
down in October after 12 years as president of the NCNAACP, will be part of a
two-day conference attended by social justice advocates from countries like
Canada, Senegal, Italy, Ireland, Tunisia, Ghana, Brazil, and the United States,
among others.
It’s no doubt that Dr. Barber’s
involvement in the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1968 Poor’s
People’s Campaign caught the attention of not only national, but international
social justice leadership, like Pope Francis, who is world reknowned for his
personal and official advocacy for the poor.
Just last Sunday in St. Peter’s
Basilica in Vatican City, Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church,
celebrated a special mass for poor people on the first World Day of the Poor, eating
with 1500 from Italy, Poland and France.
The pope also denounced those who
express indifference to the plight of the poor, calling such behavior “ a great
sin.”
"It is when we turn away from a
brother or sister in need, when we change channels as soon as a disturbing
question comes up, when we grow indignant at evil but do nothing about
it," Pope Francis said. "God will not ask us if we felt righteous
indignation, but whether we did some good."
Dr. Barber’s organization,
Repairers of the Breach, “…seeks to build a moral agenda rooted in the
framework that uplift’s our deepest moral and constitutional values to redeem
the heart and soul of our country,” it says on it’s website.
“Our deepest moral traditions point
to equal protection under the law, the desire for peace within and among
nations, the dignity of all people, and the responsibility to care for our
common home.”
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CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY
ANITA
EARLS TO RUN FOR NC
HIGH COURT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The
lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the Covington V. State of North Carolina
has announced that she will run for the NC Supreme Court in 2018.
Anita
Earls, founder and executive director of the Southern Coalition for
Justice, told supporters and
reporters gathered in front of State Democratic Party headquarters in Raleigh
Nov. 15th that she, “…passionately believe in the importance of the right to vote, and
that an independent judiciary is crucial to the balance of powers necessary to
maintain democratic government of, by and for the people.”
Earls
is already known as one of the most dynamic civil rights attorneys in North
Carolina, if not the nation. She has consistently worked with the NCNAACP and
other social justice groups, challenging the Republican-led NC legislature’s
voter suppression laws, and unconstitutional voting districts, as later
determined by the federal courts.
North
Carolina’s civil rights community was one hundred percent behind Earls’
announcement.
“Anita Earls is a tremendous jurist,
a profound litigator and deeply committed to the principles of justice for
all,” said Bishop William Barber, former president of the NCNAACP. “She has
been a champion for the full constitutional protection of women, minorities,
blacks, the poor and entire human family.”
The
current NCNAACP president, Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, concurred.
I
don't know of anyone more committed to bending the arc of the universe toward
justice than Attorney Anita Earls.” Rev. Spearman said. “Whenever I have been
in her presence to hear her offer legal opinions, insights or otherwise, the
contributions of Attorney Earls have been like a plumline - ethically balanced and judiciously
centered.
“Hers is a superior legal mind.”
One of the NAACP attorneys who has
been in the trenches with Attorney Earls over the years has had a front row
seat to witness her legal prowess, and deep commitment to justice.
“Without a doubt,
Attorney Earls is a Constitutional Law scholar,” says NCCU Law Professor Irving
Joyner, chair of the NCNAACP Legal Redress Committee. “She possesses the
intellectual breadth of knowledge and the judicial demeanor necessary to ensure
North Carolina citizens that she will be an impartial arbiter of the many
rights and privileges which citizens entrust to our appellate courts to decide.”
“Her ascension to the Supreme Court will
be a loss for the many citizens who encounter Civil Rights and Constitutional
law issues, but her expertise is needed on our State's court,” Prof. Joyner
added.
On the day of her
announcement, attorney Earls had already garnered the endorsements State
senators Angela Bryant and Floyd McKissick, Jr., Congressman and former
Associate NC Supreme Court Justice G. K. Butterfield, Linda Wilkins-Daniels,
chair of the African-American Caucus of the NC Democratic Party, and former NC
Gov. Jim Hunt.
“…[T]he qualification I hope
voters will most evaluate is whether I can fairly and faithfully apply the law
equally to everyone whose case comes before the Court,” Earls said during her
Nov. 15th press conference. “ I believe my record demonstrates
that I have an unflinching dedication to the principle of equality before the
law. I ask for your support in November 2018…”
Earls has served on
the North Carolina Board of Elections, She’s taught at Duke University, UNC –
Chapel Hill, and the University of Maryland.
If Earls were to win
a seat on the state’s highest court, she could conceivably join incumbent
associate justices Cheri Beasley and Mike Morgan, making for three
African-Americans on the NC Supreme Court at one time.
The Republican-led
state Senate is leaning towards changing the rules governing judicial elections
in 2018, having Supreme Court justices serving only two-year terms, instead of
the customary eight. That means everyone on the court now would have to run for
re-election in 2018.
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NCNAACP ANNOUNCES
FEB. 10TH
FOR NEXT “BIGGEST” HK
ON J MARCH
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Just
over three months from now, the North Carolina NAACP, this time led by it’s new
president, Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, will hold it’s next Historic Thousands
on Jones Street Moral March and People’s Assembly on Saturday, February 10th,
2018 in downtown Raleigh.
According
to the civil rights organization, “HK on J,” as it’s more commonly known, is
made up of a coalition of “…more than 125 North Carolina NAACP branches, youth councils
and college chapters from across the state, and members of over 200 other
social justice organizations.
In
previous years, upwards of over 100,000 participants marched across downtown
Raleigh to rally in front of the state Capitol on the Fayetteville Street Mall.
Next
February, Rev Spearman the promised the largest turnout “…since our inception
[12 years ago].”
Spearman
added that the NCNAACP will go on a statewide tour of local NAACP branches over
the next several weeks to promote the HK on J People’s Assembly, and mobilize
participants.
Consequently, such a tour will also
give Rev. Spearman the opportunity to introduce himself as the new state
conference president.
“There is no better time to
accelerate our resistance, than it is right now!” the NCNAACP leader told reporters, while surrounded by
branch and conference members.
“It is time to resist, insist and
persist,” Spearman continued, adding that a lot of time over the next couple of
months will be confronting the “recent attacks [by the Republican-led NC
General Assembly] on the independent judiciary, which more broadly speaking is
another frontal attack on we, the people,” Rev. Spearman declared.
Spearman went on to charge that the
attacks on the state’s judiciary have been going on since 2011, and, “…it
actually puzzles me that a roguish government such as ours, be allowed to
continue making unjust laws, issuing oppressive decrees,…and withholding
justice from we, the people.”
“We must hold them in contempt,”
Rev. Spearman continued, rhetorically asking if GOP lawmakers continue
legislating against the will of the people, and succeed in co-opting the
courts, citizens will have nowhere to turn for legal relief.
“We must rise up and resist,” the
NCNAACP president demanded, reminding all that no less than the US Supreme
Court declared that the 2011 redistricting maps instituted by the
Republican-led legislature were unconstitutional, and yet were used at lest six
times for legislative elections since.
“They have no business legislating
on our behalf,” Spearman declared, to applause. He said the only way to stop
them was to make sure that citizens got out on Election Day 2018 and vote.
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SPECIAL REDISTRICTING
MASTER
WAITING FOR REACTION
TO MAPS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The
special master appointed by a federal three-judge panel several weeks ago to
redraw redrawn legislative maps submitted by the Republican-led NC General Assembly
in August, has finished a first draft of his maps, and is now asking both
plaintiffs and defendants in the Covington
v. State of North Carolina case to review them, and offer their
observations or criticisms now, prior to the court’s Dec. 1st
deadline for completion.
The
federal court rejected the previous maps because it has “serious concerns”
about at least nine voting districts were still legally problematic. The court
appointed Stanford University Law Professor Nathaniel Persily to first review
the redrawn maps, and if he concurred with the problems, redraw them to remove
any racial gerrymandering or other unconstitutional features.
On
Nov. 13th, Persily issued his preliminary maps for both House and
Senate Districts.
According
to Persily’s report accompanying the draft maps, “…the Court has ordered the Special Master to
redraw Enacted 2017 State Senate Districts 21 and 28 and State House Districts
21 and 57 in order to remedy those districts’ violation of the Equal Protection
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It has also ordered redrawing of Enacted
2017 State House Districts 36, 37, 40, 41, and 105 because the General
Assembly, in redrawing those districts in the 2017 Plan, may have violated the
provision of the North Carolina State Constitution prohibiting redistricting
more than once a decade.”
Of
particular concern to African-Americans on the state Senate side was the manner
in which the GOP has redrawn Senate District 28 in Guilford County, currently
represented by state Sen. Gladys Robinson (D-Guilford).
In
September, Sen. Robinson expressed frustration that her district was
unnecessarily drawn as a majority-minority district.
“The courts specifically looked at my District 28
and commented on its composition. Republicans are intent on protecting
Senator Trudy Wade (a white Republican from Guilford) for whom they created a
district by packing 28. I expect that the only remedy will be in the
courts.”
Per his proposed redrawing of Senate District 28, Special Master
Persily writes, “…the
Court struck down the 2011 version of Senate District 28 and continues to
harbor constitutional concerns as to racial predominance with regard to the
district’s 2017 configuration. As expressed in the Special Master’s draft plan,
the newly configured district is a compact district -- almost a perfect circle…
The newly drawn district is contained almost completely within the city (CDP)
of Greensboro, and is made up of whole precincts.”
At
press time, neither plaintiffs attorneys nor Sen. Robinson had a reaction to
the Special Master’s redrawing of the district to relieve the “stacking and
packing” of black voters there, so they wouldn’t influence electoral races in
surrounding voting districts.
In
order for Persily to meet his court mandated deadline of Dec. 1st, he
has ordered both plaintiffs and defendants in the case, “…to submit to the
Special Master proposed objections and revisions to the Special Master’s Draft
Plan by November 17, 2017.
“In particular, the parties are
encouraged to include in these submissions suggestions as to how incumbents
shall be unpaired without degrading the underlying features of the plan, as
specified in the Court order,” the Special Master’s Order continued. “The
parties shall also then specify any disagreements they have as to which
incumbents are seeking reelection in 2018. Reply briefs shall be submitted by
November 21, 2017… In their replies, the parties are encouraged to identify
which proposed changes of the plaintiffs and defendants, if any, are jointly
supported by the parties.”
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