RIGHTS GROUPS TARGET RALEIGH

WASHINGTON -  NAACP activists and members of more than 100 organizations today announced their intent to march to the North Carolina State Legislature building to oppose attempts to re-segregate schools and to march for jobs.   

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP North Carolina State Conference President Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, and a coalition of more than 100 organizations, will protest against “separate and unequal”, beginning Saturday, February 12th at 10 AM.

The rally is being called “Forward Together, Not One Step Back” and will serve as the demonstration’s clarion call.  Extreme right wing Local Tea Party-backed school board officials have advanced an agenda of “neighborhood schooling” that would drastically reduce school diversity and roll back years of progress.  Like Arizona and immigration policy, Wake County is being watched by other states where efforts to restore segregationist educational systems are being considered. 

“Our fight in Wake County against resegreation should be our fight throughout the nation,” stated Reverend Dr. Barber. “We will never back away from our struggle to ensure that every child has access to a high quality, constitutional, well-funded and diverse public education.” 

“Separate but equal was wrong then, and it’s wrong now,” stated Jealous. “We cannot in good moral conscience separate the struggle for diverse and superior education from the struggle for jobs and economic solutions. We’ve got to fight for our children, for good schools, for good jobs, and for a great future for all people in our nation.”