 LOCAL AND STATE NEWS |
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Led by NC NAACP Pres. Rev. William Barber, the 19 protestors who were arrested at Wake County Public School System headquarters July 20th after nonviolently disrupting the school board meeting, told reporters Tuesday at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh that they did so to oppose the conservative board's anti-student diversity policies. Over 1,000 people from
Credit: CASH MICHAELS PHOTO
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PROTESTORS JUSTIFY ACTIONS, WEEK OF JULY 29-AUGUST 4, 2010
by CASH MICHAELS
The Wilmington Journal
Originally posted 7/29/2010
[RALEIGH] If anyone was expecting any of the nineteen protestors who were arrested July 20th for nonviolently disrupting the Wake Public School Board meeting to apologize for their actions, they were sadly mistaken.
The multi-racial “Wake 19” and their supporters told reporters Tuesday that their battle against the anti-student diversity policies of the Republican-led board, and what could be the racial resegregation of Wake County Public Schools as a result, is ongoing.
''Number one, we say 'no' to resegregation, and 'yes' to socioeconomic diversity,'' Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of the NC NAACP, proclaimed during a press conference in the sanctuary of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. Wake's three-decade-old student diversity policy was responsible for high black and Latino student academic achievement in 2003.
Rev. Barber, along with Pullen Memorial's pastor, Rev. Nancy Petty, had actually been arrested on June 15th when they, joined by Duke University History Professor Timothy Tyson and local activist Mary D. Williams, nonviolently stopped the Wake School Board meeting by locking arms and singing ''We shall overcome.''
All four were taken away in handcuffs and charged with second-degree trespassing.
After leading a march and rally of over 1,000 people in front of the State Capitol on July 20th, both reverends Barber and Petty were arrested again when they defied a written warning not to come back to Wake schools headquarters property.
The demonstration and arrests put the battle over the future of Wake Public Schools - the 18th largest in the nation and the largest in the state - in the national spotlight last week, as CNN, MSNBC, ABC and the New York Times all featured the latest developments, and focused on the national implications of school resegregation over 50 years since the 1954 US Supreme Court decision outlawing separate but equal.
The conservative Wake School Board, led by Chairman Ron Margiotta, counter that those black students who are underachievers have not been well-served by the student socioeconomic diversity policy the board dismantled shortly after taking over last December.
The Republican board majority maintains that all students learn better in neighborhood schools, and promised to curtail busing for diversity, even though the lion's share of busing in Wake County is done because of growth, and over 85 percent of the over 140,000 students in the system attend a school just 5 minutes away from their homes.
This week, Wake School Board members heard from a Massachusetts consultant who specializes in maintaining school diversity through ''controlled school choice.''
Rev. Barber and the rest of the Wake 19 haven't said much about that possible option, but they maintain that however Wake Public Schools goes forward, every child must be guaranteed a good education.
One Barber says resegregated neighborhood schools cannot guarantee.
''They advocate excellent, diverse schools for all children, with smaller classes, a renewed focus on math, science, reading and history, better trained and more strongly supported teachers, greater parental involvement, equity in funding for all North Carolina schools, and a rejuvenated campaign to close gaps in suspensions and discipline, student performance, and school excellence,'' Amina Turner, executive director of the NCNAACP said in a statement, referring to the 19 protestors who were arrested.
''They object to the selective detention of Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Nancy Petty, despite that they had not even entered, let alone disrupted the meeting. They also protest the rough handling and momentary arrest of school board member Keith Sutton by the police, even though he was attempting to calm the situation. They denounce the ongoing attempts by the current board majority to evade and diminish the expression of public opinion against their policies.''
Ms, Turner continued, ''In North Carolina, conservatives have mobilized to resegregate schools in Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Wilmington, Wayne, and many other communities. This assault on the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education is galvanizing strong backing from a cross-section of North Carolinians across the state, including some of the largest religious denominations and organizations in the state as well as community-based parent, student and education groups of all kinds.''
Of the Wake 19, seven were ministers; six were young people of high school and college age; five were members of the NC NAACP Executive Committee; and three were NAACP branch presidents.
In all, eight whites and eleven African-Americans - ranging in age from 16 to
60, were arrested by Raleigh Police when many of them refused to be moved after nonviolently stopping the Wake School Board meeting.
As Ms. Turner indicated, Keith Sutton, the only African-American member of the Wake School Board, was grabbed by Raleigh police, with his arm twisted behind him, all because he went to protect NAACP national board member Carolyn Coleman, who was on a walker, from being injured.
Police almost arrested Sutton, until school officials came to his rescue.
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