News - Page 64 - Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Featured News

Justice System Reform

Charlotte Police Body Cam Footage Illustrates Inappropriate, Unjustified Response in Steele Creek Arrest

CHARLOTTE (Dec. 13, 2023) — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) released body camera footage this week from an arrest initially caught on a bystander’s video in November. During the arrest, CMPD officers are seen repeatedly punching and kneeing a woman. The highly anticipated video footage only lays bare how utterly inappropriate, unjustified, and reckless officers’ actions were…

Recent News

Voter Suppression Goes Nuclear in North Carolina

Recently four new bills were introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly that pose a huge threat to the voting rights of the citizens of…

SCSJ Stands with Civil Rights Groups in Opposing Bills Reducing Early Voting, Repealing Same Day Registration

On Friday, March 29th, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice participated in a press conference with the North Carolina NAACP and other civil rights groups,…

Voters Disenfranchised by ID Requirement

If an ID requirement were put in place, citizens such as Rocky Reese would be unable to vote. Homeless for 15 years, he is currently…

Removing Barriers to Employment

Jasmyn Prioleau was a 20-something when she had a run-in with the law, and said she didn’t think about the lifelong consequences – although the…

SCSJ Attorney Testifies Before NC House Elections Committee on Voter ID

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice was invited to speak to the North Carolina House Elections Committee, specifically to offer relevant information and answer questions…

Why the Voting Rights Act Makes Sense

On February 1st the Southern Coalition of Social Justice filed an amicus brief in Shelby County v. Holder on behalf of numerous political science and…

SCSJ's Client Eva Foster Seeks Justice

Eva Foster, 87, a jazz legend and well-respected member of the community in Greensboro, is supported by the Beloved Community Center and other groups as…

222 Voters in May Primary Received Wrong Ballot in NC

Today Plaintiffs in the North Carolina statewide redistricting case filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to hold that North Carolina's House, Senate and Congressional redistricting plans are unconstitutional. As part of the research for that motion, plaintiffs' found that 2056 voters in the state had been assigned to the wrong district in a sampling of 6 of North Carolina's 100 Counties. 715 of those voters actually voted in the primary and 222 of them received the wrong ballot. Plaintiffs are asking for a hearing in mid-November. Any change in the maps won't take effect until the 2014 elections, but the wrongly assigned voters could be corrected in time for the November 2012 general election. Attached below are the Motion and a one-page summary of the filings.

daryl atkinson speaks on Capitol Hill at launch of new website on collateral consequences

On September 20th Daryl Atkinson presented testimony on the importance of knowing the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction before entering a guilty plea. He joined Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and others on Capitol Hill for the launch of a new website created by the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section and the National Institute of Justice. "Lifting the veil on these invisible punishments" will be easier for defense lawyers and for people facing criminal charges thanks to the new tool that will identify all the civil consequences of a criminal conviction. The site was modeled on North Carolina's novel one stop portal (C-CAT) http://ccat.sog.unc.edu/ that provides North Carolina citizens a way to assess the full ramifications of their criminal justice involvement. The Legal Times reports on the event here: http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2012/09/new-website-shows-collateral-consequences-of-criminal-convictions.html The ABA website is: http://www.abacollateralconsequences.org/CollateralConsequences/map.jsp

Immigration Charges Officially Dropped for Buen Pastor Families

Late last week 22 members of the Buen Pastor Church received final confirmation that the Department of Homeland Security is no longer seeking to have them deported. They had been stopped and detained by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in Lake Charles, Louisiana on April 15, 2010, on their return home from Holy Week festivities in Houston, Texas. The church members were awaiting their deportation when they received the news that their cases had been closed. They were subjected to civil rights and due process violations throughout their interaction with CBP including racial profiling, threats to place their children in foster care and mockery for their religious dress. Five of those involved in the proceedings were under 18.

Case closed: Two years later, remaining Buen Pastor defendants free of deportation threat

It was Easter weekend in 2010 when members of a small Hispanic church, Iglesia Buen Pastor, while returning from a religious exercise in Texas, were…

SCSJ Hires Deputy Director

SCSJ is pleased to announce that Kristina Klugar, our first Deputy Director, has joined the staff. This is a major step in building the expanded capacity we need to partner effectively with communities battling against racism and oppression in the South. See more about Kristina in our press release attached here and on our staff page.