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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2017
VOLUME 96 - NUMBER 17
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
North Carolina civil rights
center faces conservative ire
By Martha Waggoner
RALEIGH (AP) - A center founded at the University of North Carolina by a civil rights attorney to help the poor and disenfranchised is
the latest institution to come under fire from conservatives as they work to leave their mark on the state’s higher education system.
African-American attorney Julius Chambers, who endured firebomb attacks in the 1960s and 1970s as he fought segregation, founded the
UNC Center for Civil Rights in 2001, serving as its first director. Now conservatives on the state Board of Governors, which sets policy for
the 16-campus system, want to strip the center of its ability to file lawsuits, removing its biggest weapon.
Proponents say the move isn’t ideological, but that the center’s courtroom work strays from the education mission of the country’s oldest
public university. Critics say one of the South’s leading civil rights institutions would be defanged.
The proposal is “strictly, certainly and undoubtedly ideological,” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor Gene Nichol
wrote via email.
Nichol was dean of the law school, where the center is housed, when it was founded. He said in the email that he encouraged Chambers
to found it at UNC.
Nichol also headed UNC’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, which the board closed two years ago by saying it didn’t serve its
academic mission. It was one of about 25 UNC-affiliated centers shuttered after a review of the 240 centers in the campus system.
Those developments followed a conservative political takeover of North Carolina, launched in 2010 when Republicans took their first state
House and Senate majorities since the late 1800s.
Board member Steve Long said the center must refocus on its education mission, and “one of the things you say no to is public interest law
firms.” He added, “free enterprise, civil rights, protection of children’s rights - whatever the cause it doesn’t matter. Are you going to stay on
mission as an educational institution or not?”
(Continued On Page 2)
North Carolina Central University (NCCU) School of Law
alumnus and North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice
Mike Morgan will provide the keynote address for the NCCU
129th Graduate and Professional Commencement on Friday,
May 12.
The ceremony for approximately 518 graduates receiving di
plomas from 36 doctoral, master’s and professional programs
will take place at 3 p.m. in McDougald-McLendon Arena.
NCCU will award its first cohort of doctoral (Ph.D.) degrees
in integrated biosciences during the ceremony. Three students:
Rasheena Edmondson from Wilson County, N.C., Elena Arthur
originally from Ghana, and Helen Onabanjo from Nigeria will
receive the first Ph.D.s awarded by the university in more than
50 years.
Ph.D. Graduates (L to R) Edmondson, Onabanjo and Arthur
above. See story on page 9. NCCU photo
Judge rejects effort
to reinstall painting
in Capitol
The NCCU Provisional Chapter members of Latinos Promoviendo Communidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority Inc. (NCCU Photo)
By Kevin Freking
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge has rejected efforts
to reinstall in the U.S. Capitol a painting that some lawmakers
and police groups found offensive.
David Pulphus, a student artist from Missouri, and Rep.
William Clay, his Democratic congressman, had sued Archi
tect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers for removing the painting
in January. They sought a preliminary injunction to have the
painting restored as the lawsuit proceeds, but the judge denied
their motion.
The painting showed what appears to be a pig in a police
uniform and divided members of Congress for its depiction
of events in Ferguson, Missouri. In August 2014, a white po
lice officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, Michael
Brown.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said in his ruling that the
government used its editorial discretion in the selection and
presentation of the art. As a result, it was engaging in “govern
ment speech” and the plaintiffs have no First Amendment right
to display the painting at the Capitol. The First Amendment
limits government regulation of private speech, but it does not
restrict the government when it speaks for itself.
Bates said he was “sympathetic” to Pulphus and Clay given
how the artwork was treated, but he concluded that they were
unlikely to succeed on the merits of their arguments. He also
noted that all of the paintings in this year’s arts competition are
to be taken down May 1, little less than two weeks away.
The plaintiffs in the case had sought a preliminary injunc
tion to have the painting restored to a tunnel that leads to the
Capitol from a House office building. That’s where hundreds
of winning paintings in an annual Congressional Art Competi
tion are hung.
Ayers had determined, after Republican lawmakers criti
cized the portrayal of police, that the artwork didn’t comply
with the House Office Building Commission’s prohibitions for
the Congressional Arts Competition. The rules of the compe
tition prohibit artworks “depicting subjects of contemporary
political controversy” or those of a “sensationalistic or grue
some nature.”
Leah J. Tulin, a lawyer representing Pulphus and Clay, said
they are likely to appeal the judge’s ruling. She said that un
der the court’s ruling, there was a danger that the government
speech doctrine “can swallow the First Amendment protec
tions” provided to Americans in a limited public forum.
NCCU Welcomes First Latina Sorority to Campus
The North Carolina Central University Provisional Chapter of Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority Inc. was estab
lished last month - the first chapter of the Latina-based Greek organization to operate at a historically black university.
A presentation ceremony for five charter members took place on March 25, 2017, also marking Lambda Pi Chi’s first foray into Greek life
at a historically black college or university (HBCU).
“The Latina focus and the goals and mission are things I can identify with,” said Sheila Acevedo-Donis, an inductee whose mother is
originally from Guatemala. “But Lambda Pi Chi is not just for Latinas; anyone can join.”
Acevedo-Donis, who will graduate in May with a degree in criminal justice, said she was impressed with the warmth and enthusiasm'
expressed by other sororities and fraternities at the presentation, including members of the Divine Nine - a group of Greek organizations
originally founded at HBCUs.
“We have had amazing feedback from other students, both Latinas and non-Latinas,” she added.
National members of Lambda Pi Chi drove in from several states to support the new inductees. Alejandra Galindo, who guided formation
of provisional chapter at NCCU and works with other chapters in the state, said Lambda Pi Chi helps women develop academically, socially
and professionally and is considered a lifelong commitment.
NCCU Diversity and Inclusion Director Emily P. Guzman said NCCU aims to increase enrollment of Hispanic students, which now stands
at just under 5 percent.
“We have a strategic goal to increase the number of Latina students on campus,” Guzman said. “Part of that effort involves increasing
programming aimed at Latinos.”
The idea for forming a Lambda Pi Chi chapter grew out of a Latinos Heritage Month Celebration on campus in October, she added.
Other Latino- and Latina-based organizations active on campus are Raices, a philanthropic and social student group, and Mis Hermanos,
an initiative supporting Latino male students.
North Carolina governor follows veto with judge appointment
By Emery P. Dalesio
RALEIGH. (AP) - Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper swooped in April
24 put his stamp on a state appeals court that’s become a new flash-
point with the Republican-dominated General Assembly, appointing
a replacement judge 15 minutes after a Republican jurist resigned.
Cooper’s office announced that Court of Appeals Judge Douglas
McCullough resigned April 24 and the governor would fill the va
cancy with former appeals court judge John Arrowood.
Former Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat, appointed Arrowood to a
seat on the Court of Appeals in 2007. Arrowood, who is openly gay,
was backed by state Democratic Party officials when he ran unsuc
cessfully for election to the seat the following year. The state Demo
cratic Party on April 24 cheered the Arrowood pick.
McCullough was due to leave the court next month when he
reached the mandatory retirement age of 72. The only explanation
offered in McCullough’s resignation letter was that he felt it was “ap
propriate” to retire now rather than wait another 36 days.
Cooper’s surprise sequence of moves comes three days after he
vetoed legislation that would have decreased the appeals court from
15 judges to 12 and blocked Cooper from appointing his own judicial
picks as three Republicans reach retirement age.
Cooper said that proposed law motivated McCullough to contact
his staff and offer to resign.
“I know that Judge McCullough resigned this morning because
he disagreed with the law that has been passed by the North Carolina
General Assembly. He believes strongly in the integrity of the court,”
Cooper said during a hastily called news conference minutes after
Arrowood took office.
McCullough did not respond to a message left at his listed phone
number, and a court clerk said April 24 he has already cleared out
his office.
McCullough had a previous eight-year stint on the Court of Ap
peals, but before and after that he spent a total of about six years
working at the law firm co-founded by former Democratic Gov. Bev
erly Perdue’s deceased first husband.
Lawmakers this week were expected to override Cooper’s veto,
making the court reduction law. Republicans hold veto-proof majori
ties in the House and Senate and final tallies for the court-reduction
measure exceeded required constitutional thresholds.
The legislation’s GOP sponsors explained the need for reducing the
Court of Appeals by pointing to data showing the court’s workload
(Continued On Page 2)
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