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.