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Census Mini-Grants

SCSJ has closed our second round of small grants for organizations to support outreach efforts for the 2010 Census. The final deadline for these grant applications was Tuesday, February 16, 2010, by 5pm. Check out our blog for bi-weekly profiles on mini-grantees.

Discrimination Complaint Filed Against Wake County Schools

On September 24, SCSJ filed a discrimination complaint against the Wake County School Board and the Wake County Public School System. The complainants include the NAACP, NC H.E.A.T. (a Wake student organization), and Quinton White (a Wake County high school student). The Title VI federal civil rights complaint alleges: 1. The School Board engaged in intentional discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin when it made certain reassignments in April of 2010. 2. These reassignments have a disparate negative impact on students on the basis of race, color or national origin. 3. The disciplinary policies employed by the Wake County Public School System have a disproportionately negative impact on African American students. The Department of Education has begun an initial investigation process. Follow the links below to read the complaint , the appendix (containing detailed reassignment data), and all of the exhibits submitted in support of the complaint. Title VI Complaint against Wake County School Board Appendix A - Reassignment Maps and Figures Exhibit 1 - 4/6/10 Board Meeting Minutes Exhibit 2 - Greater Schools in Wake Coalition, "The Need to Know More about What the Academic Research Says" Exhibit 3 - Wake County Public School System: Board Policy - Transfer of School Assignment (6203) Exhibit 4 - Greater Schools in Wake Coalition: Student Transportation Fact Sheet Exhibit 5 - Updated Node Membership Data Exhibit 6 - Wake County Public School System: Student Assignment Policy (with deletions)

Recession Adds To Hurdles Facing U.S. Census

A year from now, the U.S. will conduct its decennial population count. The findings are used to re-apportion congressional districts, disburse federal funding — even decide where new traffic lights go. But the economic crisis threatens to make this daunting task even harder. There is special concern about minority groups, which are traditionally hard to count. Listen to story by clicking link above.

Human Trafficking: Combating modern-day slavery on North Carolina farms

Agricultural production in North Carolina is 46 billion dollar industry which involves the fifth most farmworkers of any state (Legal Aid of NC). For tens of thousands of farmworkers, it’s an industry which remains seeped in extreme exploitation and, for some workers, modern-day slavery. The issue of human trafficking has become a point of action for the governments across the world, while here in North Carolina,(the Southern Coalition for Social Justice) is teaming up Student Action with Farmworkers Student Action with Farmworkers to build awareness about and to combat human trafficking on NC’s farms. What is Human Trafficking? Human trafficking, defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) is any recruiting, harboring, moving, obtaining, or maintaining of a person by fraud, force, or coercion, for a commercial sex act, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, peonage, or slavery. In 2007, at a time when the US Senate was fiercely debating immigration reform, the New York Times published a story about a guest worker from Thailand, Worawut Khansamrit, which described the horrors of fraudulent recruiting and labor trafficking in North Carolina. The story is simple, proving that human trafficking could happen to anyone. Mr. Khansamrit, a former farmer in Thailand, mortgaged his family farm in Thailand for the opportunity to work in North Carolina. Mr. Khansamrit was promised to make more than thirty times what he made in Thailand, which would have allowed him the ability to afford his daughter a quality education. When Mr. Khansamrit arrived in North Carolina, the job he was promised no longer existed, which led him to working in New Orleans cleaning up debris from Hurricane Katrina, a job for which he was never paid. This story is repeated by many of the 120,000 guest workers per year allowed to get work visas. Guest workers fill a historical role in the work force in the US, a role based on paltry wages, no rights, and horrid working conditions. Faced with systematic exploitation, similar to the former plantations of yesteryear, the workers are faced with an assault on their basic human rights and little way out. What are signs of Human Trafficking? Human trafficking can be broken into two basic different forms; commercial sex trafficking, labor and service trafficking. Traffickers, including recruiters, pimps, small business owners, and criminal networks, are driven by enormous profits and huge demand for trafficked people to be exploited in labor and in sex work. Victims of human trafficking are controlled by constant threats of violence, confiscation of identification documents, threats towards the victim’s family, threats of deportation, debt bondage, isolation from one’s community and the public, and language barriers. Signs of human trafficking include involvement in commercial sex work, underpayment for work, confiscation of documents, lack of physical mobility, denial of communication, threats if a worker wants to leave, and a different work situation than promised. Trafficking does not require smuggling or forced movement, movement across borders or physical abuse. What is being done? Mr. Khansamrit and 21 other Thail workers, with the help of Legal Aid of North Carolina, filed a class action lawsuit against several labor contractors and farm owners in North Carolina for fraud, breach of contract, minimum wage violations and illegal human trafficking. Yet this is not the usual case for most people who are victims of human trafficking. The US State Department, as well as governments across the world, are working hard to combat human trafficking. This summer, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice has had the great opportunity to have an intern with Student Action with Farmworkers Into the Fields program who has been researching, compiling information, and designing popular education workshops about the trafficking of farmworkers in North Carolina. Also, we have been reaching out to farmworker camps, low-cost clinics that serve farmworkers, and partnering with Legal Aid of North Carolina's Farmworker Unit to combat human trafficking. Through these efforts, we have been building community awareness about the illegality of human trafficking and the legal remedies for trafficked farmworkers. “This means that the fear workers once had of being deported can be exchanged with the hope people now have of obtaining a Visa and social services if they have been a victim of trafficking,” said Cris Kontopidis, “Into the Fields” intern with SCSJ. “Our goal is to eventually reach all the locations where trafficking takes place in North Carolina, from the most urban to the most remote, and raise the awareness that people can have a way out, and reduce the potential for trafficking to continue happening,” said Kontopidis. For more information check out Legal Aid of NC Farmworker Unit Legal Aid of NC Farmworker Unit The Southern Coalition for Social Justice

SCSJ Secures Legal Victory for Heirs' Property Preservation

Thanks to efforts led by Southern Coalition for Social Justice families with heirs' property can sleep a little more soundly this evening. On January 21, 2011, the North Carolina State Bar Council approved 2009 Formal Ethics Opinion 8. Most significantly, this ethics opinion limits the circumstances in which an attorney for property developers can also serve as a commissioner selling the land in question. This clear conflict of interest can result in one attorney driving a difficult to understand process that results in the loss of property that has been in a family for centuries. “Partition actions are still a danger to families with heirs’ property, which is particularly common in rural African-American families. And, while it cannot solve all problems relating to partition actions, 2009 FEO 8 makes these proceedings a little more equitable for those trying to hang out to their ancestral lands,” said SCSJ staff attorney Chris Brook. Picture: The Freeman family stands on Freeman Beach, a historically black-owned beachfront property located at the north end of Carolina Beach that was the only beach accessible to African Americans in the South during Jim Crow years. SCSJ represents Freeman family heirs in preserving the land from a takeover by a developer.

Open Letter Condemning the Arrest of Legal Observers on August 28, 2020

The undersigned organizations unequivocally condemn the targeted arrest of two trained legal observers witnessing the enforcement of a city curfew on the night of August 28, 2020. We call on local leaders to publicly join us in standing beside the arrested legal observers as they fight for their right to document the actions of law enforcement without harassment, arrest, or other interference, and demand a specific written exception for that purpose in any future curfews.

Diversity policy turmoil may remake Wake's national image

RALEIGH -- Wake County's family-friendly, slightly nerdy image got a makeover this week, thanks to noisy accusations of resegregation and images of protester-toting police at school board meetings. From "The Today Show" to the Los Angeles Times to The Economist, media around the world have been spreading the tale of the Wake County school board's 5-4 decision Tuesday to ditch the 140,000-student system's policy of supporting economic diversity in favor of a neighborhood-based system. During the nine-hour-plus meeting, the divided board heard accusations of racism during a public comment period and loud chants from a group of hallway protesters. Three protesters were arrested. "Busing to end in Wake County, N.C. Goodbye, school diversity?" blared a headline in this week's issue of the Christian Science Monitor. Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said it's time for county commissioners, who provide a significant portion of the system's budget, to "step in and take control of this disorderly situation." Meeker, who is married to school board member Anne McLaurin, is among the supporters of the diversity policy who say the new school board majority is tarnishing Wake's national reputation. "It's putting Wake County in a very bad light and making people have second thoughts about coming here," Meeker said of the recent national attention. Outside agitators Supporters of the new board blame the negative publicity on outside agitators - one of the protest organizers was from Durham and two of the people arrested were from outside Wake County. The one Raleigh resident who was arrested has a lengthy history of arrests at protests on behalf of liberal causes. "You've got a lot of people who are paid political agitators who don't even live in Wake County," said Joey Stansbury, a local conservative blogger who supports the new board majority. "A lot of the people who are shouting about the issue aren't representative of the true desires of Wake County." Elena Everett, community media director with the left-leaning Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham, said the protest of college and high school students was merited by the new board majority's swift action to set aside long-established Wake policies. "I think you've got to leave all options on the table when you are dealing with well organized and ideological people who don't listen to reason," said Everett, 29, who is the daughter-in-law of former Wake school board chairman John Gilbert. Off to jail, again Tuesday's arrest of Dante Strobino, 29, of Raleigh shows it's the fourth time he's been charged for trespassing, according to state court records. The records show he's also been arrested twice for resisting a police officer and once for breaking and entering. Strobino is a union organizer who has also been a youth activist with the Raleigh chapter of F.I.S.T. (Fight Imperialism Stand Together), an avowed socialist group. Strobino, a former N.C. State University student, declined comment Thursday. Court records also show that one of the arrested protesters, Duncan Edward Hardee, 21, of Asheville, has now been charged once for resisting a police officer, once for trespassing and once for indecent exposure. Hardee, a former student at Enloe High School in Raleigh, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Records show that Tuesday's arrest for resisting a police officer was the first for Rakhee Devasthali, 22, a UNC-Chapel Hill student from Fayetteville. Devasthali was among protesters who were nearly arrested after they started chanting their opposition to increased tuition and fees at a state legislative hearing earlier this month. Devasthali did not return calls or e-mails for comment Thursday. Images of the three being arrested have blazed across the country this week in numerous media outlets. "I'm proud that we have students getting involved," said school board member Kevin Hill, a member of the minority. "But the students have to realize there are limits." Margiotta keeps quiet School board chairman Ron Margiotta said he's turned down numerous national media requests for interviews. "I'm trying to let things calm down with all the national stuff going on," Margiotta said. Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, said the level of coverage means recruiters will likely encounter questions about the schools from people or companies Wake would like to attract. "The reality is we still have a very strong system; that didn't change overnight," Schmitt said. "In terms of the impact that it's going to have, I think that over time we'll have a better appreciation for that."

Carrboro to revisit anti-lingering

From The Carrboro Citizen covers the anti-loitering ordinance. A letter sent by SCSJ and several other organizations criticizes the ordinance for its unconstitutionality. The Carrboro…