The New Hill community marched in Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ) Saturday, February 27 in solidarity with Point 10 of the HKonJ Peoples’ Agenda, promoting environmental justice.
New Hill has been a target of environmental racism and is currently fighting the placement of a wastewater treatment plant right next to their historic district and low-income, minority housing. The sewage plant will not serve New Hill.
A big shout out to the N&O's coverage of the event, especially this photo of the New Hill contingent.
The Montagnard Dega Association (MDA), an SCSJ community partner located in Greensboro, N.C., is using new media to make sure that their “hard-to-count” group will have the resources they need in the upcoming decade.
The MDA is a North Carolina Refugee Service Provider that is now focusing on making sure that the Montagnard population gets counted in the 2010 Census. North Carolina’s Montagnard population is the largest outside Southeast Asia. However, this community has been counted as Vietnamese or Cambodian for more than 20 years and has been provided with information in languages they often do not understand, effectively denying this group the resources it needs for day-to-day life.
In an effort to change this, the MDA is encouraging all Montagnards to check “Asian-American” on the census questionnaire and fill in “Montagnard.” In order to make sure individuals understand how to do this, the MDA is producing a series of YouTube videos in each language spoken by this growing section of the community. Already posted are instructional videos in Rhade and Bunong, with three more in Koho, Bahnar, and Jarai coming soon.
The videos go through the questionnaire and translate each question with an audio guide and in written form. The MDA hopes that this will give a more accurate count of the Montagnard population and improve the quality of life of this group overall.
SCSJ has submitted an official response on behalf of the New Hill Community Association to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding the Corps’ Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).
The attempt to locate a wastewater treatment plant in the center of New Hill is not the first incident of environmental racism the community has experienced. New Hill is a rural, majority-minority community in Western Wake County where the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant was located. Residents have been fighting the placement of the sewage plant in their community (which will not serve local residents) since 2005, and have received the support of the NC Environmental Justice Network and the NAACP in addition to SCSJ.
SCSJ has found that:
The selection of New HIll ("Site 14") was reverse-engineered to avoid adequate public input and without sufficient consideration to the environmental and human impacts associated with this site.
The selection of Site 14 will have a direct and major impact on the New Hill Historic District and minority community.
Locating the plant in New Hill has much larger human and environmental justice impacts than other suitable alternatives.
The FEIS does not make clear how the disposal sewage sludge, which contains “a wide range of toxic substances and chemical compounds,” will occur. The options under consideration may contaminate groundwater in New Hill or result in nearby residents unwittingly inhaling sewage sludge residue.
Please join us next Saturday, February 27 at 9:30am at Shaw University to show support for Point 10 of the HKonJ Peoples’ Agenda to “Promote Environmental Justice” at HkonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street).
Finding ways to engage both youth and adults can be difficult, but two Georgia organizations came together and found a way to do just that.
The Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), is dedicated to working for the Latino/Hispanic community and is a recipient of a mini-grant from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice to create a census outreach program. GALEO’s mission is to “increase representation of Latino/Hispanic elected and appointed officials, to proactively address the issues and needs of the Latino community, and to engage the Latino/Hispanic community in the democratic and policy process across the State of Georgia.”
In order to ensure that their constituents make their voices heard, GALEO has been working in conjunction with the Georgia Latino Complete Count Committee (GLCCC) to encourage participation in the 2010 Census. As part of their campaign, "Si Te Cuentan, Tu Cuentas!" they are hosting a Census art and essay contest for all interested students and adults in the state of Georgia.
While the contest is open to all residents, the campaign aims in particular to educate the Latino community, a group that has been historically underrepresented in previous counts. It is estimated that the Latino community may account for half of the population growth in the last decade, and an accurate count in 2010 would mean more resources allocated to this rapidly growing group.
Participation in the Census is crucial in order to create change that will last for the next ten years. GALEO and the GLCCC are hoping that the “Si Te Cuentan, Tu Cuentas!” contest will draw attention to the Census and make community members active participants in the enumeration process. Members of the GLCCC will judge the contest entries along with votes from the general public, further increasing the reach of this program. For more information, check out www.latino2010.org
SCSJ partnered with the National Immigration Bond Fund in September to provide legal and bond assistance to persons arrested by local authorities and detained for removal proceedings.
The purpose of the partnership is to:
Educate the public about the importance of getting out of immigration detention and obtaining an attorney to have a fair hearing
Call attention to the problems of local enforcement of immigration law
Provide bond assistance to individuals who cannot otherwise afford to pay an immigration bond
Through this partnership, if families can raise 50% of the bond, they can apply to SCSJ for matching funds for the remainder of the bond, which the Bond Fund will supply to SCSJ in the form of a 0% interest loan. The loan is repaid when the case is completed and the bond returned.
To learn more about the Bond Fund or to read the stories of some of our Bond Fund clients, check out the new Immigration Bond Fund section of our webite.
The world mourns with Haiti in the aftermath of one of the deadliest earthquakes in the past century, devastating a country already considered one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. As we seek solidarity with the victims of this disaster, and as U.S. and U.N. troops pour into Haiti to deliver aid, we must ensure that said aid is delivered with transparency and accountability. There are a number of steps the Obama administration can take to ensure aid is truly effective.
On January 5th the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an important ruling holding that the Voting Rights Act prohibits the State of Washington from denying the right to vote to persons in prison because of racial discrimination in that state's criminal justice system. The opinion in the Farrakhan v. Gregoire case has the immediate result of declaring that all citizens of Washington State, including all those currently in prison, have the right to register and vote.
The opinion is significant for the rest of the country in at least two ways:
First, it demonstrates the type of evidence that persuaded a court that there is racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. The factors present in Washington State are also true of other states. These Plaintiffs presented research by University of Washington sociologists demonstrating that blacks are 70 percent more likely — and Latinos and Native Americans 50 percent more likely — than whites to be searched in traffic stops. The research also showed that blacks are nine times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, despite the fact that the ratio of arrests for violent crime among blacks and whites is less than four-to-one. After reviewing the studies the Court held that the evidence "speak[s] to a durable, sustained indifference in treatment faced by minorities in Washington's criminal justice system — systemic disparities which cannot be explained by 'factors independent of race.' " The implication of this racial discrimination for voting rights is that 25 percent of black men in Washington State were ineligible to vote.
Second, the case illustrates how the Voting Rights Act’s guarantee of equal participation in democracy extends beyond redistricting to all aspects of elections and voting. In the Voting Rights movement, we have become accustomed to thinking of at-large election methods as the main barrier to equal opportunity in the political process, but other modern day barriers remain. The court in this case held that discrimination in the criminal justice system, leading to racially disproportionate rates of disenfranchisement, is another institutional barrier to equal participation.
We’re pleased to announce that Becky Jaffe has just joined the Southern Coalition as a fellow focusing on the heirs’ property problem. Heirs’ property refers to property that has passed down through successive generations of family members who have died without a will. As the property passes to each new generation, more and more people come to own the property in increasingly small, fractional interests. This ownership structure is a huge cause of black land loss in the South. Families often lose their land through bankruptcy proceedings, tax sales, foreclosure, and partition sales. Becky will work with staff attorney Chris Brook, using a combination of mediation, consensus-building, and legal skills, to help families with heirs’ property protect their land.
Becky graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School. In the fall of 2009, she served as a lecturer for the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Before attending law school, she served in the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan, where she worked with rural Uzbek villagers to help them improve health conditions in their community. She received her B.A. from Yale University. Becky first worked with the Southern Coalition in the spring of 2009 as a clinical student from the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program (http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/hnmcp/web/index.html). The clinical project involved helping the Pitt family resolve internal differences and formulate a plan for protecting their land. (http://southerncoalition.org/node/193)
We thank the Kaufman foundation at Harvard Law School for its generous funding of Becky’s fellowship, and we look forward to working with her during 2010 and introducing her to barbecue restaurants all over the state of North Carolina.
SCSJ joined an amicus brief in the case of minors Viktoria King and Jessica Hardy v. the Beaufort County Board of Education et al arguing that under the North Carolina State Constitution, the guarantee to a sound basic education means that students who are expelled for extended periods should be allowed to attend an alternative program. This case involves the decision of the Beaufort County Board of Education to deny two students the opportunity to attend alternative school while being suspended for a semester. In particular, the brief argues that any denial of the opportunity to attend an alternative program must be examined under a strict scrutiny level of review because it involves the infringement of a fundamental constitutional right.
The most effective way to prevent land loss by owners of heirs' property is by providing the vital legal services that owners lack before their land is threatened by partition sales. SCSJ is excited to work with families that own heirs' properties to draft wills, develop partnership agreements, and negotiate creative solutions to ensure stable ownership of their property.
SCSJ represents the heirs of Daniel and Francis Pitt, who owned over 150 acres in Wilson and Edgecombe County, North Carolina, in their efforts to maintain and utilize this familial land. Representing the children and grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Pitt, SCSJ conducted a title-search, confirming the family members with an interest in the land and met with the family to identify legal means of realizing their goals. Ultimately, the family chose to form a Limited Liability Corporation, establishing rules for the management of the land as well as safeguards to ensure the land remained in family hands. SCSJ drafted the LLC operating agreement and is also exploring various means of maximizing the land’s financial capacity with the family.
Speaking of the challenges they face, LLC manager Felton Wooten notes his family “lost one farm in a judicial proceeding in the early 1960s and our family wanted to be certain nothing could happen like that again.” However, “there were very strong differences in our family that we could not resolve, leading me to believe that a repeat of the 1960s incident could happen.” But, with the assistance of SCSJ, the family was able to reach consensus to hold the land in an LLC, “something so important for the survival of our family interests and which would not have happened without the help extended to our family.”
A new bond fund is helping immigrants who are arrested post bond and access legal services. SCSJ partnered with the Bond Fund to provide zero interest matching loans to immigrants who cannot afford to pay a full bond. Since its inception in September, SCSJ has used the fund to help seven families.
Un fondo creado con dinero de organizaciones privadas ha ayudado a varias familias a pagar parte de la fianza de inmigración de sus seres queridos para que disputen sus casos en los tribunales.
The North Carolina Supreme Court in March is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a Beaufort County-based lawsuit that could affect the future of students who are suspended from public schools for long periods of time across North Carolina and the local school boards that hand down such suspensions.
SCSJ's Anita Earls' coining of the term "invisible fences" is referenced in this piece, which discusses how mapping can be critical in the fight for social justice and proving systematic discrimination.
