DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2012
VOLUME 91 - NUMBER 10
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30
Liberal, civil rights groups meet
for big North Carolina rally
By Emery P. Dalesio
RALEIGH (AP) - Thou
sands attending the largest
annual gathering of left-
leaning and civil rights
groups in North Carolina
on Feb. 11 heard NAACP
leaders urge unity ahead of
big elections this year,
citing the early American
motto that out of many, the
country became one.
Buoyed by the Occupy
Wall Street zeitgeist that
the interests of most Amer
icans are not being served
by the comfortable who
control important
institutions, National
NAACP President Ben
jamin Todd Jealous and
North Carolina’s NAACP
leader, the Rev. William
Barber, said division ben
efits the few at the expense
of the majority.
“All of us in this one
"Rep. G.K. Butterfield kicked off his re-election campaign in Durham Feb. 10.
Rep. Butterfield, left, speaks with Judge William A Marsh, II, his children and his
wife, far right. See related photos on page 2. (Photo by Lawson)
Death penalty, race divide NC
House panel members
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - Sharp par
tisan differences surfaced once
again as lawmakers consider
ing changes to North Carolina’s
Racial Justice Act held their first
meeting Feb. 10.
The House Select Commit
tee on Racial Discrimination in
Capital Cases met one month af
ter Republicans fell a few votes
short of overriding Democratic
Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto of a
bill that would have essentially
repealed the 2009 law. House
leaders sent the bill to the new
committee to see if changes
could be worked out to avoid
another veto or sway enough
Democrats to secure an override.
Rep. Tim Moore, who chairs
the panel, said he’ll seek a con
sensus to address concerns by
prosecutors and others about
how the law is applied. The law
creates a new legal process by
which a judge must reduce a
death sentence to life in prison
without parole if the judge deter
mines race was a significant fac
tor in the sentencing. Defendants
can use statistics to make their
case - a big hang-up for the law’s
opponents.
first evidentiary hearing un
der the law continued Friday in
Fayetteville involving convicted
killer Marcus Robinson.
House Minority Leader Joe
Hackney, D-Orange, told Moore
the Racial Justice Act shouldn’t
be interfered with until at least
after Robinson’s case is re
solved, if it all, because there
are no known unintended conse
quences. A death penalty
litigation lawyer estimated it
would take a year for Robinson’s
case to be completed given like
ly appeals.
“We have an active appli
cation of the act in court as we
speak,” Hackney said.
But Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-
Surry, said there were already
unintended consequences. Near
ly all ofthe 158
(Continued On Page 15)
“Since the majority of both
hambers passed this bill and
was kept from going into law
y the executive branch, the
tought is to ... give it another
y and to hear from the folks
’ho are actually having to deal
'■th the application of this law,”
lid Moore, R-Cleveland. The
ommittee aims to have recom-
■endations by May, when the
sxt extended General Assembly
ork session is scheduled.
Democrats on the committee
aestioned why the law should
- altered when the first such
^e involving a death-row in-
ate is just beginning to make
5 way through the courts. The
Obama bemoans wife being
dragged into politics
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says one ofthe
toughest parts about being president is that his wife has been dragged
into the “political realm.”
Obama was responding to a question about how he felt when Mi
chelle Obama said she has been inaccurately portrayed as an “angry
black woman.” While the president did not address that comment
specifically, he says his wife is as good a first lady as anyone could
imagine, and says he believes Americans have a positive impression
of her.
Obama also says the first lady is ready for another four years in the
White House, despite her initial reservations about coming to Wash
ington.
The president spoke in an interview with NBC.
New state voting laws focus
of Selma, Ala. march
By Suzanne Gamboa
WASHINGTON (AP) - Civil rights, labor and immigration activ
ists say they are returning to Selma, Ala. next month to protest state
laws they say will largely prevent black and Latino voters, the poor,
students and the elderly from voting.
The protest will begin March 4 with a five-day march at the Ed
mund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights marchers were gassed and
beaten by state troopers in 1965. The day became known as Bloody
Sunday. This year’s march will end with a rally at the Montgomery,
Ala., courthouse.
The Rev. Al Sharpton says the march is a way to bring drama and
national attention to the voting rights debate. Marchers also will pro
test Alabama’s immigration law. Another rally is planned March 27
at the Supreme Court to support health care reforms.
beautiful human rights
movement in this country,
we believe that you don’t
breed hatred through divi
sion if you are an Ameri
can. You spread love
through multiplication,”
Jealous said from a stage
yards away from the doors
of the state Legislative
Building on downtown Ra
leigh’s Jones Street.
He said most North Car
olinians didn’t want and
didn’t support moves by
the new, Republican-led
General Assembly: cutting
funding for education, ig
noring jobs programs, lim
iting the voting power of
youths and minorities by
requiring photo IDs at the
ballot box, and advancing a
constitutional amendment
for voters to ban gay mar
riage, Jealous said.
“Let us remind them
that our nation already has
a formula for success. It’s
life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness. It’s justice.
It’s one nation under God,
with liberty and justice for
all,” he said.
Rather than dividing the
state, Republicans who
took control of the Gen
eral Assembly in 2011 for
the first time in more than
a century were voted into
office because of the finan
cial mess confronting the
state when the recession
hit, state GOP spokesman
Robert Lockwood said.
“The Democrats’ fail
ures put us in our current
situation, and the Republi
can majority is putting us
back on the path to fiscal
sanity,” Lockwood said.
Republicans back a vot
er ID law to prevent fraud
from tainting elections, he
said.
“If you look at it ratio
nally, why do you need a
form of identification to
get onto an airplane, into
a movie theater, or into a
bar - but not into a voting
booth?” Lockwood said.
Diverse interests marked
the crowd. Raleigh Police
Capt. David Linthicum es
timated to number around
3,000 to 5,000.
NAACP supporters
from High Point to Halifax
County made up the ma
jority, with others carrying
signs and wearing T-shirts
supporting unions, farm
workers, and increased ed
ucation funding. Many car
ried tiny flags, either with
the American stars and
stripes or the rainbow ban
ner supporting gay rights.
South Carolina NAACP
President Lonnie Randolph
said he hoped that pressure
from North Carolina voters
could stop Republican law
makers from joining others
who want to require drug
tests from those who apply
for unemployment benefits.
(Continued On Page 15)
speaks at a Friends of the James E. Shepard Memo
rial Library panel discussion and rededication of the
“Durham’s Woolworth’s Lunch County’ as part of a
Black History Month program Feb. 5 in the Shepard
Memorial Library. See photos on page 3) (Photo by
Lawson)
UNC board of governors
approves tuition increases
By Emery P. Dalesio
CHAPEL HILL (AP) - As scores of angry students held a raucous
protest, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted
Friday to increase tuition across the system of 16 university cam
puses by an average of nearly 9 percent, or over $400.
About eight students read statements before the vote in the call-
and-response “mic check” style adopted from the Occupy Wall Street
protests, while dozens more chanted and drummed outside the meet
ing room. The students scolded the board after the vote in the same
call-and-response style.
“This is a sad day ... for public education ... and for democracy.
We the students ... wish the board of governors ... had acted with
courage ... and upheld the North Carolina Constitution,” they said.
The state constitution says attending a UNC school should be free
“as far as practicable.”
A former university student demonstrating outside the meeting
room was arrested. Robert Payne, 33, of Raleigh was charged with
resisting and obstructing police and second-degree trespass, univer
sity police spokesman Randy Young said.
“They didn’t think about the feelings and the cost to the students
and how that’s going to reflect on us,” said Lewis Dandridge, 24, a
senior majoring in education at Elizabeth City State University. He
said he drove the three hours to Chapel Hill before dawn to demon
strate against cuts that would hurt his younger brother.
The protesters’ outpouring of anger was the most significant in
volvement of students in nearly a decade, UNC Board of Governors
Chairwoman Hannah Gage said.
The protest tapped an Occupy movement theme, that comfortable
Americans who control important institutions too often make deci
sions that worsen the economic prospects of people who earn less.
Tuition has been increased for four straight years and there’s no guar
antee there won’t be more hikes, Gage said.
UNC System President Tom Ross recommended the cost increas
es as a stop-gap measure to lessen the impact of layoffs and class
reductions forced by state budget cuts of $414 million last year. The'
cost increases will make up just 17 percent ofthe cut by state legisla
tors, the public university system’s president said.
Gage said the tuition increase doesn’t fill the budget hole, but
“does«build a short bridge over troubled waters.”
“It’s never going to be a popular vote, but I think we have done our
work and I think we have made an informed decision,” she added.
About 70 demonstrators blocked traffic as they marched the mile
between the center of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus and the univer
sity system’s administration office. They carried signs proclaiming
“education is a right” and “student power.”
Appalachian State University student Justin Hall, 26, ofEden said
more increases will deny higher education to many students. While
many of his costs are covered from serving in the Air Force for six
years, his younger sister is struggling to stay in school, he said.
“I don’t think anyone should have to join the military to afford a
free education. My sister right now is working a job, slaving away
just to make ends meet. It shouldn’t be like that,” said Hall, a senior
studying sustainable development..
But Ross said the increases are well below what campus leaders
earlier said they needed. The reduced state funding forced the 16 uni
versity campuses and the School of Science and Math in Durham to
drop more than 3,000 positions, and to cut library hours and course
offerings.
The increases sought to balance higher costs for students and their
parents against the threat that the deteriorating quality of a UNC edu
cation would harm not just the institutions, but the economic value of
a.diploma and the state’s competitiveness, Ross said.
“The key is to intervene and stop a decline from happening,” Ross
said. “We want that diploma to have meaning and value when they
go and seek ajob.”
The undergraduate North Carolina resident student currently pays
an average tuition and fees of $5,294 a year, not including books and
living expenses. It is higher at the system’s two flagship schools, with
UNC-Chapel Hill students paying $6,823 and North
(Conntinued On Page 15)