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DAVI? 12/01/16 #*CHILL
UNC-CH SERIALS DEPARTMENT
DAVIS LIBRARY CB# 393S
P □ BOX SS90
CHAPEL HILL NC 27599-0001
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2016
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 21
Report finds segregation in education on the rise
By Jennifer C. Kerr
WASHINGTON (AP) - Six decades after the Supreme
Court outlawed separating students by race, stubborn dis
parities persist in how the country educates its poor and
minority children.
A report May 17 by the nonpartisan Government Ac
countability Office found deepening segregation of
black and Hispanic students at high-poverty K-12 public
schools. These schools often offered fewer math, science
and college prep classes, while having disproportional-
ly higher rates of students who were held back in ninth
grade, suspended or expelled.
“Segregation in public K-12 schools isn’t getting bet
ter. It’s getting worse, and getting worse quickly,” Rep.
Bobby Scott of Virginia said. The analysis, he said, con
firmed that America’s schools are largely segregated by
race and class, leaving “more than 20 million students of
color now attending racially and socioeconomically iso
lated public schools.”
“This report is a national call to action,” said Scott, the
House education committee’s top Democrat and among
the lawmakers who requested the study. Its release coin
cided with the 62nd anniversary of the Brown v. Board
of Education ruling, which declared segregated schools
unconstitutional.
“While much has changed in public education in the
decades following this landmark decision and subsequent
legislative action, research has shown that some of the
most vexing issues affecting children and their access to
educational excellence and opportunity today are inextri
cably linked to race and poverty,” the report said.
GAO studied three school districts in the South, North-
east and West. Each took steps to increase racial and eco
nomic diversity in the schools but were hampered by
transportation issues and getting support from the parents
and the community. (Continued On Page 6)
Dr. Elmira Mangum, president, Florida A&M received a key to the city from
Cora Cole-McFadden, Mayor Pro Tem, City of Durham..Dr. Mangum was com
mencement speaker for graduate and professional schools at NCCU. See photos on
page 8. NCCU Photo - Public Relations.
NC Students and Community Demand a withdraw! of Senate
Bill 873. The full petition sent to Gov McCrory, Margarett Spell
ings, and members of NCGA.
Stop Obliterating NC Black History: Pro
tect Our Schools, Build Black University
North Carolina Senate Bill 873 is designed to destroy the long standing history of 5 NC pub
lic universities serving black and minority students. The bill would force Elizabeth City State
University, Fayetteville State, UNC Pembroke, Winston-Salem State, and Western Carolina to
lower their tuition to $500 a semester, damaging their ability to provide the necessary services and
education to their students. This bill would effectively defund and make institutions with a history
of providing quality education for Black, minority, and rural populations unable to provide a four
year education.
We are not fooled by the NCGA’s attempt to blame our universities for lack of “success” when
they have been systematically cutting funds to higher education, specifically HBCUs. We call on
our legislators, the Board of Governors, and Gov. McCrory to end the war on HBCU’s and the
UNC system. We demand that those in power uplift our communities by providing the necessary
resources that prioritizes our students and communities. We will not be idle as our state destroys
our education.
We Demand:
* Senate Bill 873 be immediately withdrawn as proposed legislation;
* Full funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, allowing black students to
have opportunities that are currently limited to predominantly white institutions;
* Increased funding for all public universities, creating a debt free UNC system;
* Public input process that values the voices of students, professors, community and particu
larly the voices of HBCUs.
* The North Carolina General Assembly and Board of Governors not sell our University by
running it as a business, but instead upholds an institution of learning and critical thinking;
* Transparency from all decision making institutions regarding higher education;
Supreme Court upends all-white
4th Circuit sets June 21 date
for arguments in voter ID case
RALEIGH (AP) - A federal appeals court has scheduled a
hearing next month to review a lower court ruling that upheld
North Carolina’s major 2013 rewrite of its voting laws, including
a photo identification requirement to vote in person.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia
told attorneys to prepare for oral arguments before a three-judge
panel June 21. The announcement continues the appeals court’s
effort to quickly examine last month’s ruling by U.S. District
Judge Thomas Schroeder. The first briefs are due later this week.
The state NAACP, League of Women Voters of North Caro
lina and U.S. Justice Department appealed Schroeder’s decision
rejecting arguments that voter ID, scaled-back early voting and
other changes discriminated against minority voters. The ID re
quirement began with the March primary.
Obama signs bill striking
offensive terms from US laws
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal laws will no longer in
clude outdated and offensive terms used to describe minor
ity groups.
President Barack Obama signed a bill striking the sev
eral terms, including “Negro” and “Oriental” on May 23,
the White House said.
Those terms will be replaced with “African American”
and “Asian American.”
The bill removing the terms passed the House in Feb
ruary and the Senate last week. No one in either chamber
objected.
The language targeted by the bill had appeared in laws
dating to the 1970s that attempted to define minorities.
In the Department of Energy Organization Act the phras
es “a Negro, Puerto Rican, American Indian, Eskimo, Ori
ental, or Aleut or is a Spanish speaking individual of Span
ish descent” will be replaced with “Asian American, Native
Hawaiian, a Pacific Islander, African American, Hispanic,
Puerto Rican, Native American, or an Alaska Native.”
The same language changes will be made to the Local
Public Works Capital Development and Investment Act of
1976.
Ben & Jerry push
to register voters in
North Carolina
(AP) - Ice cream inno
vators Ben & Jerry are in
North Carolina to launch
a drive to increase voter
registration and partici
pation.
Ben & Jerry’s co
founders Ben Cohen and
Jerry Greenfield are visit
ing North Carolina Cen
tral University in Dur
ham on May 17 to launch
a national campaign that
includes a new ice cream
flavor.
The liberal former en
trepreneurs are working
with the North Carolina
NAACP and others in
an effort to promote the
importance of Congress
reauthorizing the Voting
Rights Act and working
to remove the influence
of big money in politics.
Participating Ben
& Jerry’s scoop shops
across the country will
install kiosks to regis
ter voter. Trucks offer
ing free scoops of Ben
& Jerry’s will tour North
Carolina this summer
with information about
the campaign and voter
registration.
jury verdict, death sentence
Clarence Says All-White Juries Okay
By Mark Sherman
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court upended the conviction and death sen
tence of a black Georgia man May 23 because prosecutors violated the Constitution by
excluding African-Americans from the all-white jury that determined his fate.
The 7-1 ruling in favor of death row inmate Timothy Tyrone Foster came in a case in
which defense lawyers obtained strikingly frank notes from prosecutors detailing efforts
to keep African-Americans off of Foster’s jury. The decision broke no new ground in
efforts to fight racial discrimination in jury selection, but underscored the importance of
a 30-year-old high court ruling that took aim at the exclusion of minorities from juries.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that “prosecutors were motivated in
substantial part by race” when they struck African-Americans from the jury pool, focus
ing on the decision to exclude two black jurors. Two such jury strikes “on the basis of
race are two more than the Constitution allows,” Roberts wrote.
The high court returned Foster’s case to state court, but Stephen Bright, Foster’s
Atlanta-based lawyer, said “there is no doubt” that the decision May 23 means Foster
is entitled to a new trial, 29 years after he was sentenced to death for killing a white
woman.
The decision did nothing, however, to limit peremptory strikes, lawyers’ ability to
reject potential jurors without offering any reason. The late Thurgood Marshall, the first
African-American to serve on the Supreme Court, once said that racial discrimination
would persist in jury selection unless peremptory strikes were curtailed.
Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying he would have respected the decisions
of state judges who sided with prosecutors and rejected Foster’s claims. Thomas, a
Georgia native, recounted Foster’s confession to having murdered a 79-year-old retired
schoolteacher “after having sexually assaulted her with a bottle of salad dressing.”
When the case was argued in November, the justices did little to hide their distaste for
the tactics employed by prosecutors in north Georgia. Justice Elena Kagan said the case
seemed as clear a violation “as a court is ever going to see.”
Still, Georgia courts had consistently rejected Foster’s claims of discrimination, even
after his lawyers obtained prosecutors’ notes that revealed their focus on the black peo
ple in the jury pool. In one example, a handwritten note headed “Definite No’s” listed
six people, of whom five were the remaining black prospective jurors.
The sixth person on the list was a white woman who made clear she would never
impose the death penalty, according to Bright. And yet even that woman ranked behind
the black jurors, he said.
The court was not persuaded by the state’s argument that the notes focused on black
people in the jury pool because prosecutors were preparing to defend against discrimi
nation claims.
The Supreme Court’s ruling about race discrimination in jury selection was about
(Continued On Page 6)