Blog Entry

Redistricting and what you can do

On May 25, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice executive director Anita Earls spoke at the America Healing conference about the importance of community engagement and redistricting issues. Redistricting, or regrouping people within newly drawn district lines, has a large impact on whose voices are given representation and can directly affect the outcome of elections. In light of the recent census, fair redistricting has become a pressing issue. In response, SCSJ has highlighted some key ways to involve individuals and communities in making certain that the lines are drawn in a way that ensures fair and equal representation for the next ten years. 1) Know the options. SCSJ utilizes a mapping software called Maptitude to draw sample districts that show what representation would look like with each option. Organizations with staff members who are familiar with this software can access the program remotely, or an SCSJ cartographer can offer assistance and alternative options. For more information, contact allison@southerncoalition.org. 2) Ask the right questions. What will be the procedures and process for redrawing the district lines and are they written? If the process hasn't been decided, who will decide, and when, and how? Who are the staff people who will be involved in analyzing Census data to assist with redrawing the lines? SCSJ can provide a more complete list of questions and assist in interpreting the answers. 3) Host a forum to educate the community. Contact SCSJ to see if a staff member would be available to provide resources and expertise regarding the importance of knowing and advocating for redistricting rights. 4) Attend a public hearing. Lawmakers are more likely to respond to an engaged community. For more information go to http://redistrictinginstitute.org/.

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.

Wills' clinic in Spout Springs, NC

NOTE: we are having another wills' clinic October 22-23 in Tarboro, NC. Contact SCSJ attorney Chris Brook at (919) 323-3380 for more details. Following other wills' clinics we have held across the state, SCSJ conducted its first wills’ clinic in Spout Springs, North Carolina, as part of its efforts to prevent a leading cause of land loss in the South: heirs’ property passing without a will. During the September 23-25 clinic, 18 Harnett County residents had 54 end of life documents made free of charge. Documents drafted included wills, living wills, health care powers of attorney, and durable powers of attorney. Many thanks to everyone who made the service possible: SCSJ coordinating attorney Chris Brook, the Spout Springs Presbyterian Church, which hosted the clinic, and the ten law student volunteers from Carolina and Campbell Law. Carolina Law second-year student and wills’ clinic volunteer Jean Abreu highlighted the rewards in “assisting clients in securing their property for future generations.”

Pitt Family Heirs' Property Case

The most effective way to prevent land loss by owners of heirs' property is by providing the vital legal services that owners lack before their land is threatened by partition sales. SCSJ is excited to work with families that own heirs' properties to draft wills, develop partnership agreements, and negotiate creative solutions to ensure stable ownership of their property. SCSJ represents the heirs of Daniel and Francis Pitt, who owned over 150 acres in Wilson and Edgecombe County, North Carolina, in their efforts to maintain and utilize this familial land. Representing the children and grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Pitt, SCSJ conducted a title-search, confirming the family members with an interest in the land and met with the family to identify legal means of realizing their goals. Ultimately, the family chose to form a Limited Liability Corporation, establishing rules for the management of the land as well as safeguards to ensure the land remained in family hands. SCSJ drafted the LLC operating agreement and is also exploring various means of maximizing the land’s financial capacity with the family. Speaking of the challenges they face, LLC manager Felton Wooten notes his family “lost one farm in a judicial proceeding in the early 1960s and our family wanted to be certain nothing could happen like that again.” However, “there were very strong differences in our family that we could not resolve, leading me to believe that a repeat of the 1960s incident could happen.” But, with the assistance of SCSJ, the family was able to reach consensus to hold the land in an LLC, “something so important for the survival of our family interests and which would not have happened without the help extended to our family.”

Stand Up to Hate: Vote Against Amendment One Today

Today the Southern Coalition for Social Justice is standing with the LGBTQ community and fair minded North Carolinians in asking all North Carolina voters to stand up to hate by voting AGAINST Amendment One. Amendment One, which seeks to define marriage as a union between one woman and one man would: • take domestic partnership benefits from all unmarried people • take health benefits from kids of all unmarried people, and • restrict the rights of domestic violence survivors who are being hurt by people they are not married to This amendment would have broad impacts on many North Carolinians, but it explicitly seeks to attack LGBTQ community members. In North Carolina, same sex marriage is not legal, thus at its core this amendment seeks to further alienate LGBTQ people from our communities. As a social justice organization, we stand for the equal rights and humanity of all persons. Please, go to the polls today to vote NO on Amendment One and make sure your friends and family know why you are against this amendment. We thank everyone who has been involved in this important human rights struggle. For more information about Amendment One see: http://www.protectallncfamilies.org/home http://southernersonnewground.org/ http://www.naacpnc.org/

Something Stinks in New Hill

SCSJ has submitted an official response on behalf of the New Hill Community Association to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding the Corps’ Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). The attempt to locate a wastewater treatment plant in the center of New Hill is not the first incident of environmental racism the community has experienced. New Hill is a rural, majority-minority community in Western Wake County where the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant was located. Residents have been fighting the placement of the sewage plant in their community (which will not serve local residents) since 2005, and have received the support of the NC Environmental Justice Network and the NAACP in addition to SCSJ. SCSJ has found that:
  • The selection of New HIll ("Site 14") was reverse-engineered to avoid adequate public input and without sufficient consideration to the environmental and human impacts associated with this site.
  • The selection of Site 14 will have a direct and major impact on the New Hill Historic District and minority community.
  • Locating the plant in New Hill has much larger human and environmental justice impacts than other suitable alternatives.
  • The FEIS does not make clear how the disposal sewage sludge, which contains “a wide range of toxic substances and chemical compounds,” will occur. The options under consideration may contaminate groundwater in New Hill or result in nearby residents unwittingly inhaling sewage sludge residue.
Please join us next Saturday, February 27 at 9:30am at Shaw University to show support for Point 10 of the HKonJ Peoples’ Agenda to “Promote Environmental Justice” at HkonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street). For more information, please read our Press Release, visit our New Hill Page, or visit the home page of the New Hill Community Association.

SCSJ Attends the Social Forum #3

Written by Garrett Sumner, Organizing Intern On Thursday, the first workshop I attended was entitled “Globalization, Criminalization, and Managed Migration: Root Causes and Immigration Rights,” presented by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. We talked about the different forces which drive international migration and expanded the discussion beyond the typical US and Latin American model. For example, we talked about the trade agreement between Italy and Libya, which allows Italy access to Libya’s natural resources. In turn, Italy provides foreign aid to Libya. However, the agreement stipulates that Libya must use most of this aid to enforce immigration policies to limit migration to Italy. Thus, the aid directly benefits Italy itself while, suffering Libyans are unable to migrate to the country that benefits off of their natural resources.

The second workshop I attended was titled “Israeli Apartheid, International Solidarity and Water Justice.” We discussed the detrimental water use policies in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and how Israel diverts Palestinian water as a means of collective punishment. The workshop turned into a healthy dialogue about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and we deconstructed the “us vs. them” mentality often present in the discourse about the conflict.

Later, I walked through Detroit, witnessing at once its lost grandeur and its current deprivation. The plight of the city’s economy was apparent as businesses throughout the city were closed. While its architecture, constructed with past automobile money, seemingly displayed a titan of industry, there are now entire blocks of unoccupied or abandoned buildings. The US Social Forum is an appropriate first step for a city moving forward.

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

Judge Greg Mathis: stop discrimination against ex-offenders

Judge Greg Mathis, formerly the youngest person to ever hold the post of superior court judge in Michigan, as well as the host of the popular court show Judge Mathis, has written an op-ed about employment discrimination against ex-offenders in Electronic Urban Report. According to Mathis: "Every year, more than 700,000 people are released from state and federal prisons: they all need to find work so that they may support themselves and their families, contribute to their communities and to ensure poverty, frustration and desperation don’t force them to return to a life of crime." SCSJ has been promoting a fair hiring campaign to "Ban the Box", which would remove at the initial state of the employment process questions that ask whether the applicant has been convicted of a crime or been incarcerated . Durham has also recently considered passing an ordinance against this form of discrimination in order to help residents get jobs "based on their current credentials rather than their past indiscretions."

SCSJ joins amicus brief on Alabama anti-immigrant law

SCSJ joined a civil rights amicus brief filed in the case over Alabama’s HB56, a law considered by many civil rights groups to be the worst of the Arizona SB1070 copycat legislation that has moved through several statehouses in the past year. ACLU Immigrant Rights Project, ACLU of Alabama, Latino Justice PRLDEF, the National Immigration Law Center, and the Southern Poverty Law Center are seeking a preliminary injunction to enjoin HB 56 from taking effect next month. The Alabama law goes beyond Arizona’s SB1070 by making it unlawful even to provide shelter to undocumented immigrants. It also bans undocumented youth from pursuing an education in community colleges or four-year universities. It attempts to discourage parents from enrolling their undocumented children in public education by permitting school officials to report children to the Department of Homeland Security whom they suspect to be in the country illegally. In May, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice send a strongly worded letter reminding school systems of their obligations to educate children irrespective of their immigration status. Aside from federal civil rights law, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld these children's right to an education in Plyler v. Doe (1982). Other than SCSJ, 27 Amici organizations have joined the brief. The others are the Alabama State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The Alabama Council on Human Relations (ACHR), Alabama New South Coalition (ANSC), Alabama NOW (part of the National Organization for Women), Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), Birmingham Peace Project, Dominican American National Roundtable (DANR)/National Dominican American Council (NDAC), Equality Alabama, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Hispanic Federation, Immigration Equality, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), National Council of La Raza (NCLR), National Employment Law Project (NELP), National Guestworker Alliance (NGA), National Immigration Law Project of the National Lawyers Guild (National Immigration Project), New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice (Workers’Center), Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), Society of American Law Teachers (SALT), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute (USHLI). Read the amicus brief here.

Holding law enforcement accountable

The best way to hold law enforcement accountable is to KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! SCSJ's Anita Earls participated in a police accountability workshop in Williamston, North Carolina on Saturday, April 10. Representatives from the National NAACP Criminal Justice Program presented information about the NAACP’s national Rapid Report System, a user-friendly, online reporting tool for witnesses or victims of police misconduct. The innovative RRS form allows residents to send instant texts, emails, or video reports of police abuse to the Association via cell phone. If you experience or witness an incident involving police misconduct of any nature, report it from your mobile phone or on this web form e. Keeping records of law enforcement misconduct is critical for pursuing reform. Report any misconduct you witness and Know Your Rights!