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VOLUME 95- NUMBER 7 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2016 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Voter ID Takes Centerstage at 10 TH Annual Moral March
By Cash Michaels
NCBPA
Contributing writer
Led by the NC NAACP and
the Forward Together Movement,
well over 5,000 demonstrators
braved the freezing temperatures
Saturday to march down the
Fayetteville Street Mall in
downtown Raleigh to the steps of
the state Capital, where speaker
after speaker addressed issues
like immigration, improving
education and the state providing
more affordable healthcare for
poor families.
But the central issue for
the march was the suppression
of voting rights, and Rev.
William Barber, president of the
NCNAACP and convener of the
Forward Together Movement,
made it clear that they would
fight to the end to protect those
rights.
“When you want decrease
and suppress voter participation
so you can rule by default; when
you draw racially motivated
redistricting political maps
that segregate black voters and
disallow black and white people
and Latino voters from coming
together to elect candidates
of their choice. That’s a crime
against democracy! And we
must fight back!” declared Rev.
Barber.
The civil rights leader, along
with Bob Hall, executive of
the nonpartisan Democracy
North Carolina, called for 5,000
volunteers to help monitor
the polls statewide during the
March primaries and the Nov.8 th
general election.
The March 15 th primaries,
moved up ftom the traditional
May date because Republican
lawmakers wanted North
Carolina to play more of an early
role in help selecting the party’s
nominee for president, will be
the first time since the 2013 state
law requiring voter photo ID that
it will actually be in force.
The NCNAACP/Forward
Together Movement have always
called voter ID a violation of
constitutional rights, given that
all that is legally required is for a
voter to be 18 years of age and an
American citizen. A federal court
just heard testimony in a federal
suit against Gov. Pat McCrory
and the state Legislature,
regarding voter ID, and the new
requirement that those without
one must fill out a “reasonable
impediment” excuse in order to
cast a provisional ballot, which
could still be challenged and
thrown out.
In his remarks before the
Moral Marchers, Rev. Barber
reiterated that the NCNAACP
will continue voter restriction
laws in the courts, and in the
streets.
“The fight for voting rights
is personal for me,” Rev. Barber
said, recounting how his family
has had to fight for them all of
his life. “And it is a battle that
we will not turn back from now.”
The vote is at the “heart of our
democracy,” Barber said. “This
is why we’re so concerned, when
politics is more a struggle over
money and manipulation, than a
struggle over of ideas.”
Rev. Barber said when
politicians suppress the vote,
they want the people to become
“slaves to their decisions without
citizens having the ability to
register their discontent at the
ballot box.”
“Any politicians who try to
suppress the vote are committing
a crime against democracy,”
Barber charged, who then
blasted the Republican-led state
Legislature for “stacking and
packing” black voters into the
First and Twelfth Congressional
Districts, a move the US Fourth
Circuit Court of Appeals has
now ruled to be unconstitutional,
and lawmakers are scrambling
to fix by Feb. 19 th for the March
15 th primaries.
Public blames Republicans, judges for redistricting crunch
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina lawmakers who are waiting to see if courts will force them to re
draw congressional district lines this week heard Feb. 15 from citizens, many of whom blamed legislative
mapmakers or judges for the uncertainty before the March 15 primary election.
A special committee met for about five hours and heard from close to 80 people in Raleigh and at five
satellite locations through video conferencing from Asheville to Wilmington. Icy weather likely reduced
turnout at some locations, forcing the cancellation of a Greensboro site.
The meetings were arranged late last week after a Feb. 5 court ruling struck down the majority black
1st and 12th Districts drawn in 2011. A three-judge panel called them illegal gerrymanders, saying race
was the predominant factor in drawing them. The federal judges said a new map must be drawn by this
Friday, and they put all U.S. House elections on hold in the meantime.
State attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and keep March 15 House primary
elections on schedule. Chief Justice John Roberts asked for a response by Feb. 16 from the plaintiffs in
the 2013 lawsuit. Meanwhile, the Saturday death of Justice Antonin Scalia raises more uncertainty about
how the court will rule.
Monday’s hearing was part of the legislature’s “plan B” in case Roberts refuses to stay the lower
court’s order or doesn’t rule by Friday. Another committee meeting was slated Tuesday. If lawmakers opt
to re-draw maps this week, Gov. Pat McCrory would be asked to reconvene the full General Assembly on
Thursday to debate and vote on a proposal.
Redistricting leaders, who said the maps are legal and fair, said the judges’ ruling failed to provide
direction on drawing another map.
“We’re hopeful that by listening to the public that there would be some information transmitted that
can help us craft a plan,” said Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, co-chairman of the redistricting committee.
A few speakers offered specific recommendations for a replacement map. But they were drowned out
by others who blamed either the federal judges or Republican mapmakers for leading the state to the edge
of electoral chaos four weeks before the primary. More than 15,000 people have already asked for mail-in
absentee ballots that include the U.S. House elections.
Speakers blasted GOP legislators for holding elections in 2012 and 2014 in districts packed with black
voters while surrounding districts became whiter and more Republican. The 1st District covers all or
parts of 24 counties stretching from Elizabeth City to Durham and New Bern. The 12th takes in parts of
Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Greensboro, largely linked by land along Interstate 85.
“When you segregate the electorate by race, which should not be, then you change politics in the state
for the worst,” said Clarence Leverette, an Iredell County Democrat, speaking in Charlotte.
At the Halifax county meeting site, 1st District resident and longtime community activist Gary Grant
called the hearings a “joke” as committee leaders failed to offer boundary alternatives for comment.
“Redo the district lines and do the right thing,” Grant told legislators. “It’s a mess you made - clean it up.”
Other speakers said Democrats gerrymandered for their partisan advantage for decades, and said
they’re only complaining now because Republicans took over.
The current legal tussle “is the fault of the sore losers,” said Jay Delancey, director of the Voter In
tegrity Project of North Carolina. Republicans said any replacement map should still give the GOP the
chance to retain 10 ofthe 13 House seats they currently hold.
“The current 10-3 partisan split is a fair result,” of Republican victories, state GOP Chairman Hasan
Harnett said.
Other speakers urged legislators to pass a law tasking a citizen commission or the legislature”s perma
nent nonpartisan staff with future mapmaking. The state House approved such a proposal in 2011, but the
Senatehas shown no such interest.
“Redistricting is very basic to the sound functioning of democracy,” said Tom Byers of Asheville,
adding nonpartisan redistricting “would signal to all citizens that we care about fairness - that we care to
make democracy function as democracy.”
All Eyes on the Black Vote
By George E. Curry
George Curry Media Columnist
Now that we have gotten the first two political anomalies out of the way en
route to electing a new president - mostly White Iowa and New Hampshire - the
primaries and caucuses are moving to states that are more representative of a
diverse America and the outcomes will be heavily influenced by the Black vote.
Black voters will make up half or nearly half of all Democratic voters in
North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana.
Super Tuesday, March 1, has also been billed as the SEC Primary. Six south
ern states - Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia - will
hold a primary or caucus that day.
More than half of all African Americans live in the South and they will play
a crucial role in determining whether Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders gets
the Democratic nomination and whether a Democrat or a Republican succeeds
Barack Obama, the first Black U.S. president.
In its report, “50 Years of the Voting Rights Act: The State of Race in Poli
tics,” the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies pointed out, “Turnout
among black Southerners exceeded that of their whitecounterparts in four of the
Students
perform following
a day-long dance
workshop in
celebration of
Black History
Month
highlighting the
contributions
African American
women have made
to dance, in the
East Room of the
White House, Feb.
8. (Official White
House Photo by
Amanda Lucidon)
Howard
Lee is
Durham
Committee
Speaker
LEE
Howard N. Lee, a veteran North Carolina public official whose
service has included state senator, secretary of the North Carolina
Department ofNatural Resources and Community Development and
mayor of Chapel Hill, among other positions, will be the speaker at
the annual meeting of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black
People (DCABP) on Sunday, February 21 st at Community Baptist
Church in Durham.
The DCABP, also known as The Durham Committee, will be
celebrating its 81 st anniversary at the 4 p.m. meeting, which the
public is invited to attend. Community Baptist Church is located at
4821 Barbee Road, and the Rev. Percy Chase is pastor.
This will be the final meeting of the organization under the
leadership of former state senator Ralph Hunt, who is stepping down
from his post after having served as chair for the last two years.
Newly elected chair Omar Beasley, who has been serving as first vice
chair for the last two years, will be sworn in to serve as chair for the
remainder of this year, while other leaders of the organization elected
in 2015 will continue to serve out the balance of their two year terms.
A new first vice chair is expected to be elected soon after the meeting
on the 21 st .
The theme of the meeting will be “United in Service Advancing
the Community”.
The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People is a broad-
based organization in Durham’s African American community whose
constitutional mission is “to serve as a representative of and as a
leadership body for the Black citizenry of the City and County of
Durham... in promoting the welfare ofthat citizenry in civic, cultural,
economic, educational, health, housing, political and youth affairs.”
The DCABP constitution also says that its principal function is
“to work collectively toward the elimination of racial discrimination
or racial distinction in public and general private affairs.” The
organization’s political action committee (PAC) is often noted as one
of the three most powerful PACs in the city, along with the People’s
Alliance and The Friends of Durham.
twelve presidential elections since 1965, and nationwide black turnout clearly exceeded
white turnout in presidential elections in 2012 and perhaps in 2008.”
Black political clout will not be limited to the South.
“Deconstructing exit poll data from 2012, African-American voters accounted for
Obama’s entire margin of victory in seven states: Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia,” according to the Cook Political Report. “Without
these states’ 112 electoral votes, Obama would have lost decisively. African-Americans
also accounted for almost all of Obama’s margin in Wisconsin. All of these states, except
Maryland, will be crucial 2016 battlegrounds.”
The Black vote will also be important in determining whether Blacks gain a stronger
foothold in elective politics.
The Joint Center report noted, “Based on the most recent data, African Americans are
12.5% of the citizen voting age population, but they make up a smaller share of the
U.S. House (10%), state legislatures (8.5%), city councils (5.7%), and the U.S. Senate
(2%).”
That same pattern holds true for other people of color.
“Latinos make up 11% of the citizen voting age population, but they are a smaller
share of the U.S. House (7%), state legislatures (5%), the U.S. Senate (4%), and city
councils