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Duke Energy Provides $25,000 Grant For SCSJ’s 2022 Justice System Reform Work

DURHAM, N.C. (December 21, 2021) — Duke Energy has awarded Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) with a $25,000 grant to expand the educational and advocacy work of the North Carolina-based organization’s Justice System Reform (JSR) team. Through community lawyering, communications, and organizing, the JSR Team promotes social and economic justice by ensuring police accountability,…

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Residents file suit against sewage treatment company

____________________ By Sommer Brokaw DURHAM - Residents of New Hill, a small, majority black community, have concerns about noise, smell and possible contamination if a spill occurs from a sewage treatment plant being located in their community. The residents have fought to delay the developers, Western Wake Partners, from building the site in their community for the past five years. And, even though they had alternatives, the developers decided to locate there anyway. In response, the New Hill Community Association raised money to pay the litigation costs for the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice to file suit against the company. Opponents claim the community has already hosted its share of environmental burdens by being located near the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant, and they fear a spill would put their wells at risk for contamination. On behalf of the NHCA, the SCSJ has filed a petition for a contested case hearing in the state Office of Administrative Hearings to challenge Western Wake Partners' proposed placement of a sewage treatment plant in the center of New Hill. "There are better places to put this plant," said Elaine Joyner, a congregant of First Baptist Church New Hill, in a Sept. 9 media release. "We understand the Partners' need for additional sewage capacity. We simply ask that they do not put the burdens of their growth in the middle of our community next to our churches." The petition contests the issuance of a 401 Water Quality Certification by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Water Quality. It also highlights deficiencies in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, which the certification relied heavily upon. Furthermore, the petition requests a hearing on thee issues as well as seeks an injunction to prevent site construction until a hearing can be held. Three main concerns are documented in the petition: Site 14 has larger human and environmental justice impacts than other more suitable alternatives, including land previously condemned by Progress Energy in the same general vicinity. The noise, odor, traffic and light from the sewage treatment plant will impact the community, and, third, Partners prematurely committed nearly $10 million to the site before considering its environmental impact. "It is David versus Goliath all over again, but we know how that turned out don't we?", the Rev. James Clanton of First Baptist Church New Hill wrote in a media release. "We have been willing to host the Partners' sewage treatment plant so long as it was not in the middle of our community, but the Partners won't meet us halfway. It is unfortunate we have to resort to litigation to have our voices heard. "We know that we're in a fight that most folks have counted us out of. I think the municipalities to a large degree have counted us out, but we are going to continue to fight just as David fought in the battle and gained victory over Goliath." To pay litigation costs, the community association recently held a barbecue fundraiser at First Baptist and raised $4,648. Additional litigation support came from a $10,000 grant from the Impact Fund, an organization supporting efforts to achieve economic and social justice. But not everyone agrees with the decision. Shelia Morrison, an African-American resident who lives within a half-mile of the site, said she supports site 14. Her family has lived in the area for generations and ran a business called Morrison's Family Care Home for over 35 years. She said she supports Partners because it will provide water and sewer connections, which is needed to revitalize the African-American business community. "Historically, there were many mom and pop little businesses in this community," she said. "But, now, there is only one little store in operation in New Hill, and there have been times when I could name about four." Morrison has been criticized as getting paid by the Partners to advocate for them. "I have no financial motive," she said. "We [supporters] have not sought anything for anybody. I want to dispel that." James Harris, whose family has lived in New Hill for generations and lives close to the site, also supports it. "I'm always for progress," he said. "We didn't stop the nuclear plant, so there's no need in us worrying about the waste plant." "I know that one of the arguments for site 14 by some of the African-American residents is that it can help revitalize the community. I still haven't been able to accept that as a good trade-off over Western Wake Partners selecting one of the other sites. The residents who attend our church are pretty happy with their part of the community the way it is," Joyner stated in an e-mailed response. For more information, visit www.scsj.org or www.newhillca.org.

Rally to Bring Pedro Home!


Pedro Perez Guzman has been detained by Immigration for almost one year. Pedro's family and friends are calling on all supporters of immigrant rights in the area to join them on the anniversary of his detention to rally for his immediate release so he can return to his home in North Carolina to be with his wife and son. Join them and bring your friends! Don't miss this opportunity to support immigrant rights in the Triangle. Ricardo Correa, Immigrant Rights activist, Radio DJ and organizer for Durham Limpio will be present to energize the crowd with his words and music. To read more about the story of Pedro's detention, check out this site his family created.

SCSJ client featured in Indy cover story

A Salvadoran woman SCSJ represents is featured as the cover story of today's publication of the Independent Weekly. Read the article to learn the story of this courageous young immigrant who stood up to an Immigration official who attempted to use her undocumented status to sexually harass and blackmail her. SCSJ looks up to her bravery in standing up for her rights and speaking out against her abuser. We are hopeful that her story will empower other immigrants whose rights have been violated to speak out.

Not Giving Up on the DREAM

By Rebecca Fontaine, Immigrant Rights Organizer This past week undocumented students and allies across North Carolina have been holding actions in support of the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act would provide 1.5 million undocumented students with a path towards legalization and access to higher education. Unfortunately, today the Senate blocked a vote on the Defense Authorization Bill, meaning the DREAM Act will not be given the opportunity to come up for discussion as an amendment on this bill. DREAM Activist.org is urging supporters to call Senator Harry Reid (NV) to bring up the DREAM Act as a stand-alone bill and stop playing politics with the lives of undocumented students. Rosario Lopez, an NC DREAM Team member, is disappointed but says that this defeat will only make us fight harder. “We are not going to give up and we are going to keep fighting for the DREAM Act. We are stronger than ever. I think we can accomplish the passage of the DREAM Act as a stand-alone bill.”

NCCU Presents Constitution Day 2010 Teach-In

Taken from: http://www.nccu.edu/news/index.cfm?ID=0CE86988-19B9-B859-78A90DED4AE98DEF In celebration of Constitution Day, NCCU is sponsoring a daylong Teach-In on September 17, at the School of Law. The focus for 2010 is on racial bias in the American legal system during and since the institution of Jim Crow laws and slavery. Scheduled events include luncheon speaker Rev. William Barber, President of the North Carolina NAACP and a panel discussion. Among the featured panelists will be Darryl Hunt, who was exonerated after a capital punishment conviction. Other panelists include Ken Rose of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation; James Coleman of Duke University School of Law; Charmaine Fuller Cooper of the N.C. Justice For Victims Of Sterilization Foundation; Cassandra Stubbs of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project; Anita Earls of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, and Dennis Gaddy of the Community Success Initiative. Events will be begin at 9:30 a.m., and end with the unveiling ceremony of a mural of the United States Constitution by famed artist Michael Brown at 4 p.m. Rhodes Scholar, author and Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Randall Kennedy is the guest speaker. The unveiling ceremony is open to invited guests and news media only. NCCU's Constitution Day 2010 is sponsored by the Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change; the NCCU Law School American Constitution Society; NCCU Black Law Student Association; Constitutional Law and Civil Rights Society and North Carolina Central University School of Law and is open to the public. The mural unveiling is funded by support from the John William Pope Foundation. In addition to the scheduled events, there will be a Blackboard course with readings and other resources for context and further discussion. For more information about the Teach-In and the Blackboard course, please contact Dr. Jarvis A. Hall at (919) 530-7256 or jhall@nccu.edu.

New Hill submits new petition against sewage plant



Click here for video coverage. RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Noise, odor and traffic are just a few of the reasons why the residents of New Hill in Wake County do not want a sewage treatment plant in their neighborhood. The community filed a petition Thursday to stop site construction the plant until a hearing is held. The document, which lists a number of concerns over the negative impact the plant would have on the neighborhood, is the latest development in a battle that's been going on for years. Over the last five years, New Hill residents have been very vocal about their concerns and reservations. "We are losing our identity," resident Paul Barth said in 2006 during an interview with ABC11 Eyewitness News. "We're just a holding tank -- a dumping ground. I am going to smell the sewage of four other towns." The plan is to build a sewage treatment plant in the middle of the community's historic district. The New Hill Community Association, which is headed by Barth, has held rallies, signed petition and taken its battle to a Wake County courtroom. The association also has unsuccessfully sued the towns of Cary, Holly Springs, Apex and Morrisville, which make up Western Wake Partners. "We all know that the partners need more capacity, nobody's objecting to that, but what we're saying is, there's a better spot for it," attorney Chris Brook said. Brook is representing the New Hill Community Association in its latest legal move. "I think you, at a certain point, need to get a third party involved in a lot of these discussions," Brook, Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham, said. Brook says the group filed Thursday's petition asking an administrative law judge to put the project on hold. The community also wants Western Wake Partners to consider alternate sites that wouldn't have such a negative impact on the New Hill community, especially on African-American and low income families. "And it's not something that they've been hearing the concerns of the New Hill community, and if they've been hearing them, they haven't been responding to them," Brooks said. The New Hill community received a $10,000 grant and held a barbecue fundraiser to help cover the costs of litigation. The community seems prepared to do what it can to keep fighting. ABC11 Eyewitness News reached out the Western Wake Partners Coalition but did not hear back from the organization.

SCSJ "Free Within Ourselves" Photo Contest Submission Deadline

___________________________ SCSJ Free Within Ourselves Photography Contest and Exhibit* Contest Rules and Guidelines Purpose: The Free Within Ourselves Contest seeks to document, promote and honor the fight in the Southern United States for political, economic and social equality. Don’t just show us racism, show us what it means to stand up against it. The contest will culminate in a photo exhibit on November 6, 2010 in Durham, NC. Winners will be announced at the event. Submission Deadline: October 15, 2010 Guidelines: Any photo taken in the Southern United States demonstrating the ongoing struggle for political, economic or social equality; self-expression of underrepresented groups or individuals; or the dismantling of racism and oppression is eligible for submission. For the purposes of this contest, Southern states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. Criteria: All photos must be submitted through email to photocontest@scsj.org. Image files must be 200-300 DPI, JPEG files, and must include the following information with the submission: 1) Image Title 2) Photographer’s name 3) Location 4) Date 5) Name of copyright holder, if applicable. 6) Organization or school, if applicable. Each participant is limited to 5 entries. Entry Fee: $15 per photo for professionals (any photographer who earns more than $5,000 per year from his/her photographic pursuits); $10 per photo for amateurs. Payment is due at the time of submission by using SCSJ's donation page. When submitting your payment, be sure to use the same email address you used to submit your photo(s) to photocontest@scsj.org. If you are unable to use this process for payment, please let us know. Selection: Photos will be judged based on a range of factors such as subject matter, composition, technique, originality and overall impact. Prizes: There will be one grand prize of $500. By entering this contest, the artist agrees that the winning photo, along with the artist’s name and biographical information, may be displayed electronically on SCSJ’s website for up to one year following the exhibition. Artist’s Rights: The artist acknowledges and warrants that he/she holds all rights to the submitted photographs. Photos previously published, pending publication, or violating or infringing upon another person’s copyright are not eligible. Photographers will retain the long-term rights to the images but grant SCSJ a license to print one 11 x 14 copy for the purposes of displaying and auctioning the print as a fundraiser for SCSJ. The winner may be asked to provide limited use of the electronic file, with appropriate credit and copyright information, for the purpose of promoting the photo contest on SCSJ’s website following the exhibition. * In the last line of his 1926 essay, “The Racial Mountain and the Negro Artist,” Langston Hughes issues the call, “We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”

Is It Really possible to Opt-out of Secure Communities?

Last Thursday federal officials released a memo called “Setting the Record Straight” that outlines for the first time how local police can opt-out of sharing arrest data with immigration authorities via enrollment in the “Secure Communities” program. But so far, the process exists only on paper. The memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) states: [Please see original source for memo text.] All of these steps sounded familiar to San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessey, except the resolution. “I did all of that,” he said after reading the explanation. When California signed a statewide agreement with ICE, Hennessey sent a letter to ICE on June 3 asking for his jurisdiction to opt-out of the program which allows agents to access arrest data from local jails. [ Please see original source for letter text.] Deputy Director for Secure Communities, Marc Rapp, responded to Hennessey with a phone call, the upshot of which was that there was no way his request could be granted. Shortly afterward, Secure Communities went into effect over the objection of the sheriff and his Board of Supervisors. “I followed procedure, but they did not follow procedure,” said Hennessey. Now the sheriff has sent another letter, this time asking California Attorney General, Jerry Brown, to clarify whether San Fransisco can stop sending its misdemeanor arrest data to ICE. Confusion over how to opt-out of Secure Communities may explain how ICE has enrolled 574 jurisdictions in 30 states since it began two years ago. While the new memo suggests Secure Communities is voluntary, it definitely seemed mandatory when Orange County, North Carolina tried to opt-out in January 2009. “My first reaction to the memo was that this is a complete contradiction to everything they said before,” said Marty Rosenbluth, staff attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Rosenbluth is a member of Orange County’s Human Rights commission, which was asked to investigate Secure Communities. “We were told point blank by ICE that the only way for Orange County to opt-out was to stop fingerprinting people,” he said. As a result, the county passed a resolution with the following request: [ Please see original source for resolution text.] Now Rosenbluth says he plans to revisit the opt-out issue with the commission and the sheriff. “At our next meeting we’re going to say, ‘Excuse us, we have this new information,” said Rosenbluth. “Would you mind please considering it?” In counties already enrolled in Secure Communities, the push back is coming from both activists and local officials. Members of the New Sanctuary Movement in Philadelphia plan to ask the mayor to reconsider opting out. County Supervisors in Santa Clara, California may pass a resolution opposing the program. Civil rights groups who filed an open records request with ICE in part to clarify the opt-out process say the agency’s next step should be to include similar instructions in agreements with states yet to be enrolled. “We demand a clear protocol be included in every single Secure Communities agreement,” said Sarahi Uribe with the National Day Labor Organizing Network and lead organizer of the “Uncover The Truth Behind ICE and Police Collaborations” campaign. Governors in Colorado and Washington could decide as soon as this week whether they will sign an agreement to enroll their states in Secure Communities. If they choose to join, local law enforcement agencies in those states could unleash a wave of opt-out requests that will put ICE’s new explanation to the test. The agency is already on the hot seat back in San Fransisco. ICE spokesman, Richard Rocha, told the Washington Independent he will discuss Sheriff Hennessey’s new request to opt-out and seek a resolution that may “change the jurisdiction’s activation status.” Stay tuned…

New Hill Community Association formally contests Western Wake Partners' wastewater plant

By Rebekah L. Cowell The New Hill Community Association (NHCA) and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice filed a Petition for Contested Case Hearing today in an attempt to stop the Western Wake Partners from building a $327 million wastewater treatment plant in the historic and primarily African-American town. The petition asks that a neutral third-party review the partner's actions, and make a final ruling. The petition contests the issuance of a clean water permit for the facility by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Water Quality. It also contends the site “has larger human and environmental justice impacts than other, more suitable alternatives, including land previously condemned by Progress Energy in the same general vicinity. Noise, odor, traffic, and light spill from the sewage treatment plant will impact the New Hill Historic District, including the predominantly African-American First Baptist Church and cemetery. Western Wake Partners reverse-engineered Site 14 by prematurely committing nearly $10 million to the site before considering its human and environmental impacts. This commitment of resources prevented an unbiased consideration of better, alternative sites in the same general vicinity.” The plant, which was scheduled to begin construction this year, will not be built in Apex or Cary or any of the partners' towns. It will loom across the street from the New Hill First Baptist Church and playground, and a half-mile from the First Baptist Church of New Hill. The plant will sit within 1,000 feet of 23 homes. But who lives in those homes is as important: 87 percent of those approximately 230 residents immediately affected by the sewage treatment plant are African-American, on fixed incomes, elderly or retired. Rev. James E. Clanton of the First Baptist Church New Hill says it is unfortunate that the community has had to resort to litigation to have its voice heard. “We have been willing to host the partners’ sewage treatment plant so long as it was not in the middle of our community, but the partners won’t meet us halfway.” Litigation will be expensive, and thus far the community has been able to pay those costs from a $10,000 grant from the Impact Fund, a Berkeley, Calif.-based nonprofit organization that financially assists community groups in the areas of civil rights, environmental justice, and poverty law. A barbeque fundraiser held by the First Baptist Church of New Hill also raised $4,648.

Hazleton, PA Anti-Immigrant Law Is Unconstitutional, Federal Appeals Court Rules

PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit today issued a sweeping decision striking down as unconstitutional the city of Hazleton’s law that would punish landlords and employers who are accused of renting to or hiring anyone the city classifies as an “illegal alien.” The case, Lozano v. Hazleton, has been closely watched across the country because the Hazleton ordinance has served as a model for similar laws nationwide and was challenged by civil rights groups in a lengthy trial. The suit has been underway for more than four years in the federal district and circuit courts. Today’s unanimous appeals court decision is the latest legal victory against discriminatory state and local laws that target immigrants and invite racial profiling against Latinos and others who appear “foreign.” Many cities like Fremont, Nebraska and Summerville, South Carolina have voluntarily tabled or blocked these laws under legal pressure and local opposition. “This is a major defeat for the misguided, divisive and expensive anti-immigrant strategy that Hazleton has tried to export to the rest of the country,” said Omar Jadwat, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project. “The Constitution does not allow states and cities to interfere with federal immigration laws or to adopt measures that discriminate against Latino and immigrant communities.” Hazleton adopted its first anti-immigrant ordinance in August 2006. A civil rights coalition including the ACLU, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, the Community Justice Project and the law firm Cozen O’Connor immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the law on behalf of Hazleton residents, landlords and business owners. Today’s ruling upholds a July 2007 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania concluding that the Hazleton ordinances were preempted by federal law governing immigration. “Hazleton’s discriminatory law decimated a town that used to be bustling with life and commerce,” said Vic Walczak, Legal Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and a lead attorney in the case. “Divisive laws like these destroy communities and distract from the very real problems that local governments are facing across the country. Immigration reform needs to come from the federal level. Local ordinances like these have a toxic effect on the community, injecting suspicion and discriminatory attitudes where they didn’t previously exist.” During the trial, Hazleton officials claimed that undocumented immigrants were responsible for bankrupting the city, driving up healthcare costs and increasing local crime. In fact, the evidence at trial showed that from 2000-2005, Latino immigrants actually helped to transform a huge city budget deficit into a surplus, that the private hospital system made a $4 million profit and that the crime rate actually fell. “The Latino plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit knew this law was intended to drive them out of Hazleton,” said Cesar Perales, President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF. “The court clearly recognized this danger.” Friend-of-the-court briefs opposing the Hazleton law were filed by numerous civil rights, religious, labor and business organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the labor union coalition Change to Win, the American Jewish Committee, Capuchin Franciscan Friars, Lutheran Children and Family Services, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Legal Momentum, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the Anti-Defamation League and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Related issues involving state authority to enact laws addressing immigrant employment are pending before the Supreme Court in the case, Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria, brought by the ACLU and other groups challenging an Arizona statute. Attorneys on the case include Jadwat, Lucas Guttentag, Jennifer Chang Newell and Lee Gelernt of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project; Walczak and Mary Catherine Roper from the ACLU of Pennsylvania; Shamaine Daniels of the Community Justice Project; Foster Maer, Ghita Schwarz and Jackson Chin of LatinoJustice PRLDEF; and Thomas G. Wilkinson and Ilan Rosenberg of Cozen O’Connor. The ruling is online at: www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/lozano-v-hazleton-opinion A video with interviews with ACLU attorneys and clients is online at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8vr66MYZn8 More information on the case, Lozano v. Hazleton, is online at: www.aclu.org/hazleton More information on the case, Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria, is online at: www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/chamber-commerce-v-candelaria

Potential Wake wastewater plant faces new challenges

_______________________ By Ted Richardson and Jordan Cooke - Staff writer CARY -- The Southern Coalition for Social Justice today filed a petition that challenges the placement of a regional wastewater treatment plant in New Hill, an unincorporated community in western Wake County. The petition, filed at the state Office of Administrative Hearings on behalf the New Hill Community Association, charges that the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued a water quality certificate to the Western Wake Partners based on insufficient information on potential environmental impacts on the community. The Western Wake Partners is a consortium of four western Wake towns — Cary, Apex, Morrisville and Holly Springs — that are planning the $327 million plant to meet a state mandate that required three of the towns to return treated wastewater to the Cape Fear River Basin. The project also would help the towns deal with growth for the next 20 years. The Southern Coalition is asking state court administrators for a hearing to contest DENR's certification of the plant in an effort to block construction. "We have been willing to host the Partners' sewage treatment plant so long as it was not in the middle of our community, but the Partners won't meet us halfway," the Rev. James E. Clanton, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Hill and a leader in the community association, said in a statement. "It is unfortunate we have to resort to litigation to have our voices heard." Mary Penny Thompson, general counsel for DENR, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The New Hill site received final environmental approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month. But the Corps' blessing, followed by the state environmental permit, stoked more opposition in the New Hill community. In its petition, the coalition and community association claim that building the regional plant in New Hill would significantly impact low-income and African-American residents. The petition claims that the treatment facility also would have negative environmental impacts, including exposing residents to sewage sludge, noxious odors, increased noise and light pollution. Mayor Keith Weatherly of Apex, chairman of the Western Wake Partners Policy Advisory Committee, on Thursday said New Hill residents have had ample opportunity to voice their concerns. He praised the Army Corps for its findings. "The Corps had a three-year exhaustive study on all the issues that were relevant," he said. "The concerns of the good people of New Hill were taken into account during the public comment sessions, and I think the Corps made the right decision." The mayor referred additional questions about the lawsuit to the town's attorneys.