mbutts@heraldsun.com; 419-6684
DURHAM – Benjamin Todd Jealous, national president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, stopped by the Bull City on Saturday to rally support for the “Historic Thousands on Jones Street” agenda ahead of the civil rights-focused march next month in Raleigh.
“All eyes are on the state of North Carolina because so many politicians in this state in the past year have attacked the notion of high-quality education for all, have attacked the notion of equal opportunity for all, have attacked the notion of democracy for all,” he said, noting that the HKonJ rally is the sole state-level event he makes a point to attend every year. “As we have seen so many times, so goes North Carolina, so goes this nation.”
More than 60 representatives of the NAACP and of its HKonJ coalition partners stood behind Jealous and the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, at a news conference organized by the NAACP at the N.C. Mutual Life Building.
Barber railed against the state Legislature’s majority, which he accused of “trying to shrink democracy, rather than expand it,” in reference to redistricting that concentrates black voters.
With more than 1.5 million North Carolinians living in poverty – more than 500,000 of them children, he said, “this is not the time for the General Assembly to cut hundreds of millions from Medicaid, mental health and critical services for poor communities. But that is exactly what [legislators] have done.”
HKonJ, now in its sixth year, will push a 14-point agenda, ranging from the need for public school funding and the protection of immigrants’ rights to collective bargaining for public employees and environmental justice.
Barber also sought to rally support against a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Voters will decide that measure’s fate at the May 8 primary. He asked that NAACP supporters put their personal feelings about same-sex marriage aside and view the issue as one of basic civil rights.
“They’re trying to give people, based on their sexuality, a kind of second- or third-class citizenship,” he said. “We know what that looks like in the NAACP, and we’re calling it what it is.”
African-Americans’ concerns about the morality of same-sex marriage have been credited in California with helping to pass Proposition 8, a ballot measure that resulted in a constitutional ban of same-sex marriage in that state. Analyses suggest that as many as 70 percent of black Californians supported that measure. However, a September 2011 Elon University poll found that 66 percent of African-American North Carolinians were opposed to such a ban in the Tar Heel State.
“When you allow a majority to vote on the rights of a minority, that’s a dangerous precedence,” Barber said.
Also at Saturday’s news conference, several representatives of coalition partners spoke of concerns ranging from a desire to reduce defense spending in favor of education funding, to a hope that young undocumented immigrants find a path toward citizenship.
Viridiana Martinez told the crowd that she attempted to take her life as a 17-year-old who saw no hope when she graduated from high school as an illegal immigrant.
“We can’t vote,” she said, tears streaming down her face, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t make change.”
More than 125 organizations are listed as coalition partners, with more signing on every day, said the Rev. Curtis Gatewood, the statewide HKonJ organizer.
The rally is slated for 10:30 a.m. Feb. 11.
