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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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Strength in numbers with the 2010 Census

The National Coalition for Burned Churches and Community and Empowerment was formed in 1997 in response to the church-burning crisis of 1996, when churches all over the South were destroyed by arsonists. Now this group of allies based in Georgia but spread all over the South is coming together for another cause: an accurate count in the 2010 Census. In keeping with their mission and targeting historically underrepresented populations in communities affected by arson, the organization has many obstacles to overcome. They have found that there is very little interaction between these faith communities and government, making community members reluctant to participate and provide any information in the census. Even recovery aid is often not enough incentive in overcoming these inhibitions. Being accurately counted and represented in the 2010 Census can mean fair political representation, strengthening a community voice that has historically gone unheard. With a membership of more than 250 individuals and 15,000 parishioners, the National Coalition for Burned Churches plans to use their extensive network to reach as many people as possible in raising awareness of the 2010 Census. Building trusting relationships between groups affiliated with the census and faith communities is the best way to combat skepticism and encourage participation. The group will work with church leaders to ensure that every member of every congregation is counted, building a network of individuals that can be used for years to come after this census.

New Hill not alone in fight against injustice

Having been engaged in a five-year struggle to keep a sewage plant out of the heart of their community, the folks in New Hill have felt a bit lonely at times. Over the weekend they saw firsthand that they are far from alone in the fight against perceived injustice. An environmental justice summit was held Saturday morning at New Hill First Baptist Church. The New Hill Community Association hosted the event in conjunction with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the NC Environmental Justice Network. More than 75 people attended the summit, which was held as a way for different groups to learn about each other’s struggles. “This was held to educate people who have expressed an interest in what we are doing,” said Paul Barth, president of the NHCA. “We also had speakers from other groups talk about their experiences and what can be done and what should be done. “We aren’t completely alone in this fight. We have picked up some allies along the way. But this really gave us a chance to get together with people who are fighting similar battles against landfills, sewage plants and hog waste ponds. It’s good to speak with people who are dealing with similar issues.” The towns of Apex, Cary, Morrisville and Holly Springs are planning to build a regional wastewater treatment plant near two churches and numerous homes in New Hill. The self-dubbed Western Wake Partners planned to have the sewage plant completed in 2011. As a result of the strong fight put up by New Hill residents the controversial project has already fallen three years behind schedule. “They are three years behind schedule and they will probably end up four years behind,” said Barth. “I don’t see them opening the plant before 2015. We are going to delay them as long as we can because we feel what they are doing is wrong.” Summit organizers invited various local elected officials to the event but only Apex Councilman Bill Jensen and Morrisville Mayor Jackie Holcombe attended. “Bill Jensen has always spoken strongly on our behalf and we are grateful,” said Barth. Barth said he was disappointed that none of the Wake County Commissioners even respond to the invitation. “We invited Mayor Keith Weatherly in Apex and Mayor Dick Sears in Holly Springs,” said Barth. “They contacted us and said they weren’t going to attend and that is fine. “But we were surprised none of the county commissioners bothered to even respond to us. They are supposed to be our elected representatives and they never acknowledged us.” With the fight against the Western Wake Partners drawing to an inevitable close – a final decision on the proposed site by the Army Corps of Engineers is expected some time this spring – Barth said his group remains optimistic. “If I didn’t have hope I couldn’t keep going on with everything,” said Barth. “But we know it is coming to an end. It has gone through all the processes and once that final decision is made there isn’t much more we can do. But legal options are still certainly available to us.”

Spanish language census materials

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."
Impacts for the census and immigrants
Impacts for the census and labor
Cumberland County Fact Sheet
Edgecombe County Fact Sheet
Forsyth County Fact Sheet
Forsyth County HTC race and ethnicity map
Fact sheet for Cabarrus County
Fact sheet for Cumberland County
Fact sheet for Durham County
Fact sheet for Edgecombe County
Fact sheet for Forsyth County
Fact sheet for Greene County
Fact sheet for Guilford County
Fact sheet for Harnett County
Fact sheet for Lenoir County
Fact sheet for Mecklenburg County
Fact sheet for Nash County
Fact sheet for New Hanover County
Fact sheet for Pitt County
Fact sheet for Wake County
Fact sheet for Wayne County
Fact sheet for Wilson County
Fact sheet on Census Impacts For Labor
Fact sheet on Census As Organizing
Fact sheet on Census and Immigrants

Wake County School Board Vote Today



Today, the Wake County School Board will be holding the final vote on its plan to dismantle Wake County’s economic diversity policy and resegregate schools in the county.

They will be conduct this vote without full observation and participation by interested Wake County citizens. Concerned parents who showed up to the Board’s administration building before 9 AM were told that unless they stayed the entire day (the meeting doesn’t begin until 3 PM), they would have to surrender their tickets and lose their chance to attend the meeting. This was NOT ticketing policy described in this morning’s News and Observer.

Parents who had to pick children up at noon were thus excluded from attending this vitally important meeting. They left the building, frustrated, disgusted, and without tickets to the meeting.

The Wake County School Board is behaving in way that violates North Carolina’s Open Meeting Law. These secretive, excluding tactics are further inflaming tensions and dividing our community.

Linked here is a letter sent by a coalition of North Carolina attorneys outlining violations of the Open Meetings Law and urging the Board to reconsider its procedural changes for today's meetings.

New Hill residents assail sewage plant

They came from Cary, Morrisville, Apex and Chapel Hill. They packed the seats of the 100-year-old First Baptist Church. They spoke their minds. And they listened to a panel of pastors, scholars, and environmental activists. It was all part of a Saturday summit aimed at bolstering opposition to a $300 million sewage treatment plant in New Hill, an unincorporated section of southwestern Wake County. "We had no vote, we'll get no benefit," said Paul Barth, president of New Hill Community Association, an organization that formed in 2005 to oppose the project. The wastewater plant, proposed by four western Wake towns, would be built adjacent to homes and churches at the heart of this rural crossroads. Construction could begin this year. But before it does, New Hill residents wanted the towns to hear their plea: Consider building elsewhere. "Why is there such a big rush?" Barth said before the rally. "Why can't we sit down and really consider the alternative sites?" Cary, Apex, Morrisville and Holly Springs formed the Western Wake Partnership to pursue construction of the wastewater treatment plant to meet the needs of their fast-growing populations. Cary, Apex and Morrisville would send waste to the plant, and treated wastewater would then be sent to the Cape Fear River. Holly Springs plans to use the facility's pipe to send its own treated waste to the river. Applications for building permits for the wastewater plant could be submitted as early as May, assuming the site meets environmental standards set by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The partnership says it picked the New Hill area because it is the most logical place for treating the sewage. Opponents say New Hill may have been targeted because of its demographics. "There's a trend of these types of facilities being put into low-income communities, communities of color that lack political power," said Elena Everett, spokeswoman for Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which helped organize the summit. Henry Wicker, a special projects manager for the Corps of Engineers, said the proposed plant would have little negative repercussions for surrounding wetlands. The corps may make a final recommendation in May. Summit organizers are hoping that continued community pressure, which has helped delay the project by several years, will persuade regulators to strike down the New Hill location. ted.richardson@nando.com or 919-460-2608

March 23, 2010: Students and Alumni of the Wake County School System Led a Sit-in Today During a Meeting of the Wake County School Board, Demanding All Students Receive a Quality Education

Raleigh, N.C. (March 23, 2010) - This evening the Wake County School Board is scheduled to take a final vote on dismantling the system's nationally recognized diversity policy. In response, an organized group of Wake County students, alumni, and their supporters began chanting "Shut it Down, No Segregation in our Town." Demonstrators were forced from the building where they continue to rally outside. The policy is a measure that seeks to ensure socio-economic diversity in all schools as a statistically proven way to bring more equity to the education system by avoiding low-performing high-poverty schools. Demonstrators, who believe this vote will move the community toward re-segregated schools and a two-tier system of education, attempted to enter the meeting en masse and declared the new school board majority was violating both legal and moral laws by continuing to operate as it had been. Concerned parents, students, and community members have been packing the school board meetings for months, trying to stop these measures by the new majority, who were elected by less than 5% of the voters in the county. "Separate but equal didn't work then and it wont' work now. This is a right-wing agenda being pushed on the people of Wake County and its being bank-rolled by some of the richest conservatives in our state - Art Pope, and the chair of Civitas, Robert Luddy, who runs several private and charter schools," stated Andy Koch, a junior at UNC Chapel Hill and alum of Wake public schools. Demonstrators and the public were also outraged by new procedures that sought to further limit public input on the measure by limiting attendees to only those who could pick up tickets at 10:30am for the 3pm meeting. "How are students or working parents able to meaningfully participate and have their voices heard if the only people who attend are those who can afford to show up at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning? This is a clear maneuver to limit participation by working class people, who happen to be the people who will be most affected by this decision," said Alicia Sidney, a single mother of two. In addition, the school board was slated to vote on a new policy that threatened suspension for any student who picketed or protested the new policies. "This is a violation of our human rights - what kind of civics lesson are they trying to teach us by threatening to suspend students for using their voice as we attempt to exercise our First Amendment Rights?" stated an outraged Jacob Ehrlich, a Wake County high schools student. Demonstrators demand: that all following school board meetings be held at a time and place that allow for meaningful public participation, that the school board not move forward on any radical alteration of its policies until a full review of the data and fiscal implications, to drop the so-called "student disruption" policy that seeks to limit student's First Amendment Rights, and finally, a re-call election to allow the people of Wake County to determine if these members truly have the support of the community. Contact: Elena Everett, Southern Coalition for Social Justice (919) 413-1276; Elena@southerncoalition.org Ben Carroll, HKonJ Youth (919) 604-8167, itsaredletterday@gmail.com

Summit a success



On March 20, approximately 120 residents, public officials and advocates participated in the Environmental Justice Summit in the historically black First Baptist Church in New Hill.

The summit discussed the struggle of the New Hill Community Association (NHCA) against the placement of a sewage wastewater treatment plant in their community in the larger context of environmental racism and injustice.

The plant would benefit Cary, Apex, Holly Springs and Morrisville, but would not benefit New Hill residents, who do not have a sewage system. Residents argue selection of the site was reverse-engineered, failed to include requisite public input, and has one of the largest human impacts of any of the sites considered. The plant would be located in the middle of town, next to the historic district and low-income housing for people of color.

The summit was co-sponsored by NHCA, SCSJ, and the NC Environmental Justice Network. Attendees engaged in community dialogue, learned about the latest developments, and participated in a press conference. In addition, attendees engaged in a question and answer session after a panel discussion with President of the New Hill Community Association Paul Barth, Co-Director of the NC Environmental Justice Network Gary Grant, UNC-Chapel Hill Professor of Epidemiology Dr. Steve Wing, a leader in the Rogers-Eubanks community's environmental justice struggle Reverend Robert Campbell, and the SCSJ staff attorney representing New Hill Chris Brook.

Check out this video created by SCSJ and shown at the summit:

Federal Formula Grant Programs Impacted by the Undercount

Funding SourceFY 2006 Spending (in billions)Scope of Undercount Impact
Medicaid$199.6reimbursement rate to states
Title I grants to Local Education Agencies$12.6local education agencies share of total available funding
WIC (food stamps)$5.3federal allocation to states per program participant for administrative costs as well as state share of surplus above 'stability allotment' for food costs
Federal Mass Transit Grants$4.6local transit authorities for bus systems share of total available funding
Foster Care$4.3reimbursement rate to states
Community Development Block Grants (to metropolitan areas)$2.7metropolitan cities' and counties' share of total available funding
Social Services Block grants$2.3state share of total available funding
Child Care and Development Block Grant$2.0state share of total available funding
Adoption Assistance$1.8reimbursement rate to states
HOME Investment Partnerships Program$1.8states' and local jurisdictions' share of total available funding
Block Grants for Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse$1.6state share of total available funding
Vocational Education: Basic Grants$1.2state share of total available funding
Community Development Block Grants (to states)$1.1state share of total available funding
Employment Services$0.8state share of total available funding
Maternal and Child Health Services$0.6state share of surplus above 1983 amounts
Rehabilitation services: Basic Support$0.6state share of surplus above 1978 allotments
Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities$0.3state share of total available funding

March 19, 2010: Environmental Justice Summit to be Followed by a Press Conference at the Prospective Site of Cary and Apex's Sewage Treatment Plant

New Hill, N.C. - Elected officials, candidates for office, leaders of statewide organizations, as well as members of a community threatened with a negative environmental impact, will gather for an Environmental Justice Summit Saturday, March 20. Currently Site 14, which is located in the New Hill historic district, is the preferred location for the Western Wake Regional Wastewater Management Facility, causing great concern among New Hill residents and their supporters. The Summit is being put on by the New Hill Community Association in conjunction with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network to discuss the environmental impact of a planned sewage treatment plant. The Environmental Justice Summit will focus on the history and legacy of environmental racism in North Carolina, and on environmental consequences that Site 14 will place on the New Hill community. Media are invited to attend the summit and asked to be present for a 12:15 news briefing outside the church, in a location adjacent to the site of the prospective sewage treatment plant. New Hill is a rural, majority community of color in Western Wake County, located near the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant. Since 2005 residents have been opposing efforts by the Western Wake Partners (an organization comprised of the towns of Apex, Cary, Holly Springs and Morrisville) to place a wastewater treatment plant in middle of their community. Speakers at the summit will include Gary Grant, Director of the NC Environmental Justice Network, attorney Chris Brook of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Dr. Steve Wing, an adjunct professor at UNC Chapel Hill, Reverend Campbell of the Rogers-Eubanks Community Association, Reverend James Clanton of the First Baptist Church New Hill, and Paul Barth, President of the New Hill Community Association. When: March 20, 2010 Time: 8:30 AM -12:30 PM Where: First Baptist Church New Hill 3016 New Hill Holleman Road New Hill, NC 27562 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Environmental injustice - when members of low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately burdened with environmental hazards or risks for the benefit of affluent, predominately white communities and corporations. www.southerncoalition.org www.newhillca.org Contact: Elena Everett, Southern Coalition for Social Justice (919) 323-3380x112; Elena@southerncoalition.org Paul Barth, President, New Hill Community Association (919) 362-7905; NCDeerHunter29@aol.com Rev. James Clanton, New Hill First Baptist Church (919) 218-4066; clantonjames@bellsouth.net