LUME 94 - NUMBER 36 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS Black Lives Matter Movement experiencing growing pains I By Jesse J. Holland WASHINGTON (AP) - Hun- 1 of Black Lives Matter ac- 1s, black and white, marched [de the Minnesota State Fair Leekend, hoping to bring at- In to the deaths ofAfrican- -Americans at the hands of po lice. Inside the fair, a booth had T- shirts bearing the slogans “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” for sale. Todd Gramenz, who reserved the booth, chatted e Bull Durham Blues Festival two day event is nted at Hayti, in the historic Performance Hall, utdoors at Durham Central Park. The Bull Dur- Blues Festival preserves the heritage and ern es the experience of blues, a music genre rooted e African American experience. In Friday, Sept. 11, in the Hayti Heritage Center ormance Hall, singers Jean Carne, Norman Con- and Kim Waters in a VIP Performance. Tickets 40 general admission and S55 VIP lower level. On Irday in Durham’s Central Park, Grady Cham- , Jason Damico and Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen perform in a free concert. For more information www.hayti.org/. >ove is singer Jean Carne and below Norman tors. Swell, Wasserman Schultz support Iran nuclear deal By Matthew Daly WASHINGTON (AP) - Already a done deal in Congress, (ran nuclear agreement is gaining more momentum. ormer Secretary of State Colin Powell and Rep. Debbie perman Schultz, who heads the Democratic National Com- ee. are backing it. owell - secretary of state under President George W. Bush Is NBC’s “Meet the Press" that the agreement is “a pretty 1 deal” and would reduce the threat of Iran gaining a nu- rweapon. Bsserman Schultz calls her decision the most difficult ■made in nearly 23 years in elected office. Florida lawmaker, who’s Jewish, writes in The Miami that the deal “provides the best chance to ensure” secu- for the U.S., Israel and other allies. he White House has clinched the necessary Senate votes to (re Congress will uphold the deal. with fairgoers while the other protesters were kept outside. The competing activities in Minnesota underscore the chal lenge that Black Lives Matter faces as it evolves from social media hashtag to full-blown movement. Its fluid, organic na ture generates confusion about exactly who is in charge, who can legitimately speak for the group, and even whether it can be blamed for violence that some say may have been inspired by its rhetoric. Tracing its roots to the fatal 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida, the Black Lives Matter movement gained national ground after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Since then, deaths of other unarmed black males at the hands of law enforcement offi cers have inspired protests under the “Black Lives Matter” moni ker. Some are affiliated with the original Black Lives Matter network founded by Opal To- meti, Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza and their allies. But some are not, although they use the slogan. Garza said in an email in terview that her organization - which has 26 chapters, including Ghana and Canada - doesn’t try to control who uses the name. “Anytime someone identifies with a movement to make black lives matter in this country and around the world, that’s a good thing,” she said. Some similarly loosely or ganized social movements, like Occupy Wall Street and the tea party, evolved beyond their grassroots beginnings, while some died. Others followed the lead of the 1960s civil rights move ment, which birthed groups like the Southern Christian Leader ship Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com mittee. Having small nebulous groups linked through social media and a shared cause may be enough for now, but odds are against such groups surviving for the long haul, said Deana A. Rohlinger, a Florida State Uni versity sociology professor who studies social movements and collective behavior. “Activists do really good work locally,” she said. “But if you want to affect politics and politicians, then you really do have to move up your organiza tion to a more structured format that can engage politicians and lobbyists on their turf.” Activists claiming to rep resent the group interrupted a speech about to be delivered by Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, and met with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clin ton and Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush. And a Texas sheriff criti cized the movement after one of his white deputies was shot and killed Friday at a Houston gas station; a black man has been charged with murder. Har ris County Sheriff Ron Hick man questioned whether it was spurred by anger over the kill ings of black men by police. But Garza called any attempt to link the Black Lives Matter with the killing “racist and ri diculous.” (Continued On Page 3) Rev. William Barber II, the president of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP speaks during the America’s Journey for Justice at the Lincoln Memo rial in Washington, D.C. (Freddie Allen/NNPA News Wire) N.C. Court to Decide The Fate of Voting Rights for Blacks By Freddie Allen NNPA Senior Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Two pivotal court cases in North Carolina will determine the bal ance of political power in the state for years to come, and may signal the future of voting rights nationwide, according to civil rights and voting rights advo cates working in the state. In the wake of the United States Supreme Court decision in Shelby County vs. Holder that gutted Section 5 of the Vot ing Rights Act, North Carolina state legislators passed H.B. 589, which shortened early vot ing by a week, eliminated same day registration during the early voting period, prohibited vot ers from casting out-of-precinct provisional ballots, expanded the ability to challenge voters at the polls, removed the pre registration program for 16 and 17 years-olds and implemented a strict photo ID requirement. Lawmakers eased the photo ID requirement leading up to the N.C. NAACP vs. McCrory court case. In that case, lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that H.B. 589 discriminates against black and other minority voters. Denise Lieberman, a senior attorney with the Advancement Project, a multiracial civil rights group, called the N.C. voting law “the most onerous voting law in the countryaS and said that it combines nearly every conceiv able voter suppression tactic to attack voting at every step of the process. “[H.B. 589] makes it harder to register to vote, harder to cast a ballot, and harder to have that ballot counted,” said Lieberman. During the trial, lawyers for the state chapter of the NAACP presented clear evidence that each of these provisions was designed with the intent to dis criminate and has the impact of disproportionately burdening the right to vote for African Ameri can and Latino voters in North Carolina, said Lieberman. “Our lawsuit argued that H.B. 589 violates Section 2 of the VRA as well as 14th and 15th amendments of the United States Constitution,” Lieberman added. Rev. William Barber II, presi dent of N.C. State Conference of the NAACP and the convener of Moral Monday Movement, called H.B. 589 “the worst and the most cynical voter suppres sion law in the countrya€ and said that the attempts to roll back opportunities put in place to overcome past and ongoing discrimination are reminiscent of the days of Jim Crow. “We have never seen since the days of Jim Crow the attempt to roll back opportunities and provision put in our voting poli cies to overcome past barriers to overcome past discrimination and continuing barriers and con tinuing discrimination. We know that whole premise of this law was fraudulent, because it was the claim of fraud,” said Barber, adding that there has been no evidence of voting fraud in the state. According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a non- partisan public policy and law institute, voter impersonation at the polls is more rare than some one getting struck by lightning. “We know that African Amer icans and Latinos were far more likely to use same day registra tion out-of-precinct voting and the first week of early voting and the other measures that were re stricted and eliminated by H.B. 589, what’s more is that we know that lawmakers knew that before they passed the H.B. 589, because they implemented those measures precisely to make vot ing more accessible for the very communities that ended up using them the most,” said Lieberman. “That evidence was present, front and center to lawmakers when they introduced H.B. 589.” Lieberman continued: “We also know that they waited, they waited until the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Shelby Coun ty vs. Holder that gutted the cov erage formula for Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, waited until that happened until they knew that they were not going to be subject to Section 5 pre clearance provision before mov ing forward with the bill.” North Carolina lawmakers revised the voting maps in 2011 following the 2010 census. Last spring, the United States Su preme Court ordered the state Supreme Court to revisit a De cember 2014 ruling that found the maps lawful. The Associated Press report ed that Republicans used the North Carolina maps in the 2012 and 2014 elections to gain veto- proof majorities in the state leg islature and to win 10 of the 13 seats in the state's congressional delegation. Anita Earls, the executive di rector of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said that it has always been understood that the Voting Rights Act not only pro tected the right to cast a ballot, but also the notion that each vote carried the same value. In the court case challenging (Continued On Page 3) NAACP president urges N. Carolina activists to keep walking .RALEIGH (AP) - The head of the NAACP says protecting the right to vote is worth marching hundreds of miles through North Carolina and other Southern states on the way to Washington, D.C. National NAACP President Cornell Brooks spoke Sept. 3 at a downtown Raleigh rally attended by hundreds of demonstrators. Some have been walking North Carolina portions of what’s called “America’s Journey for Justice.” The march began in Selma, Alabama, and ends in mid-Sep tember with lobbying on Capi tol Hill to get restored portions of the federal Voting Rights Act struck down by the U.S. Su preme Court. Brooks praised efforts of the North Carolina NAACP and its “Moral Monday” movement to oppose Republican policies at the General Assembly. State chapter president the Rev. Wil liam Barber also spoke, criticiz ing what he called voter suppres sion efforts.

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