YOUR ORGANIZATION’S
Center for CivilNAME
Rights
ANNUAL2010-2011
REPORT 2010-2011
ANNUAL REPORT
MESSAGE FROM THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR
“What does the UNC Center for Civil Rights do?” The answer is both
easy and impossible. At one level, the Center seeks substantive civil rights
outcomes to remedy injustice imposed on poor and minority people. At
another level, though accurate, that answer leaves out more than it conveys
and does not meaningfully distinguish the Center‟s goals and activities
from other organizations, many of which are our partners. So let me try
this. The Center:
Advocates. The Center advocates for people and seeks just outcomes in
educating our children so they receive diverse sound basic educations; in
developing our communities, neighborhoods and towns in ways that provide adequate governmental services; and in prohibiting discrimination in
housing.
WHAT’S INSIDE...
Education Developments
Community Inclusion
Other Advocacy
Student Involvement
Chambers Conference
Engaged Scholarship
Endowment Campaign
Researches. The Center researches and develops data to engage public
persuasion with publications in disparate forums from issuing op-ed newspaper pieces to publishing reports on deleterious conditions undermining
justice in communities. It provides a forum using research to demonstrate
how rules are fostering injustice.
Educates. The Center educates at several levels. It provides direct education to students with programs in educational venues. It engages students
in direct service to selected clients through will preparation projects and
election protection activities. It trains summer interns and offers a place to
help foster justice. It employs and trains post-doctoral fellows.
Litigates. The Center litigates when necessary to enforce fair housing
laws, to stop discriminatory community development rules, to challenge
conduct that undercuts the capacity of citizens to engage with public bodies and to stop unlawful manipulation of laws to take people‟s land.
Organizes. The Center helps organize and helps others in promoting effective community organizations that empower citizens when they confront public bodies.
Stimulates. The Center sponsors conferences with local, state and national organizations to explore new strategies to more effectively seek justice for minority and poor people.
The Center is happy to summarize its work in this 2010-2011 Annual
Report.
- Charles E. Daye
EDUCATION
HALIFAX COUNTY
On May 9, 2011, the Center for Civil
Rights held a press conference at the
Historic Halifax County Courthouse
for the release of its special report
“„Unless Our Children Begin to Learn
Together...‟ The State of Education in
Halifax County, N.C.”
The report reflects a year-long
effort by the Center, several community organizations, and education advocates. It provides a comprehensive
analysis of the history, educational
effects and legal implications of maintaining three separate school districts
in one county.
The report examines the disparities among the county‟s three school
districts, and concludes that the maintenance of three separate, racially segregated school districts in Halifax
County is a continuing violation of the
constitutional rights of all students and
severely undermines the quality of
public education throughout the
county.
Despite the Center‟s efforts, last
fall, the Pitt County Board of Education voted on a new reassignment plan
for elementary and middle school students that will resegregate several of
the district‟s schools this fall. The Center filed a motion seeking an injunction
to stop the implementation of the reassignment plan, which will also result in
the opening of a new elementary
school that is extremely racially identifiable (88% non-white) and low performing (46% reading proficiency).
These outcomes were completely
avoidable, as the board considered and
rejected other reassignment proposals
that would have resulted in better racial
balance and academic performance of
the district‟s schools.
In April 2011, the Center filed a
motion to enjoin the implementation
of the resegregative reassignment plan.
The Center will continue to work with
its clients to counter the board vote
with appropriate legal action, and to
ensure the district makes genuine progress toward eliminating the vestiges of
PITT COUNTY
race discrimination in the school sysThe Center‟s work in Pitt County fur- tem.
thers its efforts to develop prodiversity policies and strategies in mid- WAKE COUNTY
sized, urban-suburban southern school The Center continues to work with
districts, as well as reflects the unique local citizens, in challenging the Wake
challenges and opportunities facing County Board of Education‟s decision
districts that still remain under federal to dismantle the district‟s path-breaking
desegregation order.
and successful socio-economic diverIn November 2009, the U.S. Dis- sity student assignment policy.
trict Court issued an order maintaining
In Garlock v. Wake County Board
the federal desegregation order, in
of Education, the Center and coplace since 1970, and directing the
counsel alleged that the board violated
board to work with the Center‟s indistate law during a highly controversial
vidual clients and the Pitt County Coa- meeting at which the board voted to
lition for Educating Black Children
end the student assignment plan. In
(PCCEBC) to develop a reassignment February 2011, the Center‟s Managing
plan that moves the district towards
Attorney Mark Dorosin argued this suit
unitary (integrated) status. Throughout before the North Carolina Court of
the last year, the Center assisted the
Appeals.
PCCEBC in advocating for an assignment plan that promoted diversity and
integration.
The Center and its allies have also filed a
Title VI civil rights complaint with the US
Department of Education and a complaint
with the district‟s accrediting agency. Both
cases allege that the local Board is violating
the civil rights of parents and student by dismantling the prior Board‟s diversity policy.
The Title VI civil rights complaint alleges that the board‟s student assignment and
disciplinary policies have disproportionately
impacted non-White students and intentionally denied Black and Hispanic students access to educational resources. U.S. Department of Education attorneys and investigators returned to Raleigh in March to interview
complainants, board members, and district
staff regarding the complaint.
AdvancED, the accrediting agency for
Wake County‟s high schools, has placed Wake
County under “accreditation warned” status,
in response to a complaint filed in March
2010 by the NC NAACP (also a party to the
Title VI complaint) alleging that the actions
of members of the board were in violation of
policies that would have a negative impact on
the quality of education in the district‟s high
schools. The board must implement significant changes and host a monitoring visit from
AdvancED before November 30, 2011 to
keep its accreditation.
OTHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENTS AND ADVOCACY
The Center for Civil Rights, the Office of Public Service
Programs and the Education Law and Policy Society,
hosted a series of conversations with UNC Law faculty on
whether integration is the community‟s priority or best
strategic choice. Dean John Charles (Jack) Boger, Professor Charles E. Daye, Assistant Professor Catherine Y.
Kim, and Visiting Associate Professor Derek W. Black
engaged with Center attorneys, Mark Dorosin and Elizabeth Haddix, to discuss a range of questions concerning
school integration and diversity.
Center Staff Attorney Elizabeth Haddix spoke at the National NAACP Daisy Bates Educational Summit in Raleigh in December 2010. Haddix spoke at the final plenary
session entitled “Fighting Re-segregation and Promoting
Desegregation,” about segregation across the state as evi-
denced in Halifax, New Hanover, Wayne, Wake and
Mecklenburg Counties.
The Center recently released a news report, Juvenile Delinquency Adjudication, Collateral Consequences, and
Expungement of Juvenile Records: A Survey of Law and
Policy in Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.
The report demonstrates that there are real consequences
to juvenile adjudication such as an impact on public
school attendance, college admission, driving privileges,
access to public housing, and future employment. The
report was written by former Center summer intern
Jenifer Marsh, funded by the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund,
and made possible by guidance and support of Professors
Tamar Birkhead and Barbara Fedders at the UNC School
of Law Juvenile Justice Clinic.
COMMUNITY INCLUSION
BRUNSWICK COUNTY
The Center for Civil Rights and the law
firm of K&L Gates, LLP, are representing The Royal Oaks Concerned Citizens
Association and community residents in a
civil rights action suit filed June 3. The
lawsuit challenges the county‟s recent
decision to rezone land in Royal Oak
from rural residential to industrial general,
under the N.C. Declaratory Judgment
Act, the N.C. Fair Housing Act and the
Equal Protection Clause of the N.C. Constitution.
The Royal Oaks Community is a historic, African American, low-income rural
community located in the unincorporated
town of Supply, NC in Brunswick
County. The population of Brunswick
County is over 80% white. Like many of
the excluded communities with which the
Center works, the Royal Oaks community
lacks water and sewer service, even
though the water and sewer lines stop just
short of the community‟s borders.
The Center is optimistic about its
ability to help this community take action
against a rezoning decision stemming
from long-time racially discriminatory
Royal Oaks Concerned Citizens Association speaking to the press on the courthouse steps before filing the
complaint.
patterns and practice of burdening the
county‟s black communities with hazardous and unwanted land uses. The community already hosts most of the other
environmental hazards in the county,
including a waste transfer station, a sewage treatment facility, the animal shelter, a
hog farm, a fish farm and numerous sand
mines. All of these facilities can have a
significant impact on the water quality
and the depth of the water table, which is
particularly worrisome to a community
that relies entirely on well water.
The Center partnered with the Cedar
Grove Institute and the North Carolina
Environmental Justice Network to document the extent of the existing environmental and public health hazards.
COMMUNITY INCLUSION
With assistance from the Center attorneys and in collaboration with surrounding Pinehurst town officials, Jackson Hamlet
residents secured CDBG funding in 2007 to extend sewer services to one-third of its homes. Phase I was completed in spring
2009 and 51 households were connected to public sewer. In
December 2010, construction began on Phase II of the sewer
project to give the remaining residents public sewer service.
Residents of the Brandy Creek community with Representative Angela Bryant
and Attorneys Mark Dorosin and Peter Gilbert outside of the N.C. Finance
committee
BRANDY CREEK DE-ANNEXATION
The end of annexation is here for residents of the Brandy
Creek/Wallace Fork Community. This rural community was
annexed by a local bill passed in the North Carolina legislature
in 2005, making the community apart of Roanoke Rapids without prior notice, and resulting in enormous property tax increases. Members of the community approached the Center in
order to seek de-annexation.
The Center helped residents of the Brandy Creek/Wallace
Fork Community reduce property values to pre-annexation
levels last year, and the North Carolina legislature voted to deannex Brandy Creek from the city of Roanoke Rapids in June
2011. State Senator Ed Jones introduced the bill to de-annex
the community, and Representatives Angela Bryant and Glen
Bradley introduced the same bill in the House. The bill passed
both houses .
LINCOLN HEIGHTS WASTE MANAGEMENT
The Center for Civil Rights is partnering with a low-wealth African American community, Lincoln Heights, and the NC Environmental Justice Network since the City of Roanoke Rapids,
NC began considering the neighborhood for a new waste management facility. Although bordered by Roanoke Rapids on
three sides, Lincoln Heights is excluded from the city, access to
city services, and as an electoral voice in local government.
Due to the opposition, on December 7, 2010, the city
voted to remove the Lincoln Heights community from consideration as a site for a new waste transfer station. The Center will
continue to work with Lincoln Heights toward cleaning up past
environmental hazards, removal of dilapidated housing, affordable housing development, provision of municipal services and
annexation.
CAMERON HEIGHTS COMMUNITY ACTION
The Center has partnered with Cameron Heights Community
Action Project to address issues of municipal exclusion and
access to basic service, faced by the small African American
community located just outside the city of Raeford, in Hoke
County, NC. The Center helped the community association
acquire grant funds through the Resourceful Communities Program and provided the legal documents necessary to begin
clearing overgrown lots and dilapidated structures that have
become magnets for crime and illegal dumping and presented
numerous public health problems.
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Habitat for Humanity of the North Carolina Sandhills, the Midway Community Association, and the UNC Center for Civil
JACKSON HAMLET SEWERS
Rights worked together to plan and begin construction of MidThe Center continues to work with Jackson Hamlet, a predomi- way Gardens, a 22 home Habitat community inside Midway.
nately African American, unincorporated community of 300
residents, to ensure that all residents are ultimately provided
access to sewer service and on projects related to dilapidated
housing, economic development and possible annexation and
political inclusion.
HONORING THE LEGACY OF JULIUS CHAMBERS
JULIUS CHAMBERS RETIRED TO
EMERITUS STATUS IN JUNE
On December 10, 2010, nearly 200 family
members, friends and colleagues assembled in Chapel Hill for a gala to celebrate
Professor Chambers‟ far-reaching career.
Gala attendees heard greetings from
North Carolina Governor Beverly
Perdue, remarks from Massachusetts
Governor Deval Patrick and viewed a
video message from President Barack
Obama praising Professor Chambers for
his tireless efforts to secure justice for all
Americans. The evening ended with Jane
DiRenzo Piggot, chair of the Center‟s
Advisory Board, announcing the launch
of the $10 million endowment campaign
to sustain the Center‟s work.
Julius L. Chambers gives remarks at “The Unfinished Work” Conference Reception, November 1, 2010
CHAMBERS CONFERENCE
On November 1-2, 2010, the Center for
Civil Rights united the nation‟s most talented attorneys, advocates and scholars
for a national conference to honor the
career and work of civil rights pioneer,
Professor Julius L. Chambers. “The Unfinished Work”: Advancing New Strategies in the Struggle for Civil Rights, took
place at The Friday Center in Chapel Hill,
NC, where practitioners, researchers,
policymakers, community activists and
students examined the most promising
strategies for pursuing equity and elimi-
nating discrimination in public education,
housing, democratic representation, employment and criminal justice.
Conference sessions highlighted the
Chambers‟ legacy in confronting these
issues, strategies and tactics being used to
combat key civil rights issues, and provided insight into effective, creative and
new strategies for pursuing change on all
levels.
The conference concluded with a
challenge to participants to adopt cultivating entrepreneurial civil rights careers,
and a charge to continue the work that
civil rights pioneers like Chambers have
dedicated their lives and careers to.
Keynote Plenary speakers included:
Lynn Huntley, president of the Southern
Education Foundation; Elaine Jones,
former director-counsel and president of
the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative.
ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP
In their article in the Spring 2011 issue of the Journal of the North Carolina State Bar, the Center‟s Senior Attorney
Mark Dorosin and Attorney Postdoctoral Research Fellow Peter Gilbert, argue for direct access to state courts under
the North Carolina Fair Housing Act.
The article challenges the assumption that a plaintiff must exhaust her administrative remedies available
through the North Carolina Human Relations Commission before proceeding in court under the state act. Mark and
Peter argue that the current statutory interpretation of the state act as requiring exhaustion conflicts with the requirements of the Federal Fair Housing Act and HUD guidelines for the state act to meet “substantial equivalency” to the
federal act.
Sara K. Pratt, HUD‟s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement Programs, praised their work and noted
that as a result of the article HUD has sent out letters to several FHAP [Fair Housing Assistance Program] agencies
including North Carolina and Florida, directing them to take action to address and resolve issues relating to administrative exhaustion.
STUDENT INVOLVEMENT
Writing Competition
In honor of S. Ashley Osmet, the Center‟s Senior Attorney
who passed away on May 28, 2010, the Center hosted a law
student writing competition in the fall of 2010. Two UNC Law
students, Tessa Benjamin (2L) and Brandi Jones (3L), were
presented with the first annual Ashley Osmet Student Writing
Award for their papers on current civil rights and social justice
struggles relevant to North Carolina today.
Election Protection
On November 2, 2010, the Center and the UNC Pro Bono
Program coordinated, staffed and managed the North Carolina
call center for the national non-partisan Election Protection
hotline. Election Protection provides information and assistance to voters to help ensure they are able to effectively exercise their right to vote. The Center has helped coordinate the
North Carolina call center since 2004. This past year, 44 students took part in a comprehensive election law training session, and volunteered to staff phones from 6:00 a.m. through
8:00 p.m. Over 200 calls were answered by students who, with
support from the Center, UNC Pro Bono Program staff and
volunteer attorneys, helped resolve voter questions about poll-
ing sites, voter registration, provisional balloting, identification
requirements, absentee ballots and voter intimidation. The Center is currently developing a summary report detailing patterns
of election problems reported to the hotline, as well as proposals on how to address these issues.
Pro Bono Wills Project
On March 7-9, 2011, Center attorneys, the UNC Law Pro-Bono
Program, and attorneys from the Wilson and Ahoskie Legal Aid
of North Carolina offices collaborated in eastern North Carolina for the fifth Pro Bono Wills Project. The project provides
training to law students to prepare health care powers of attorney and living wills for low wealth and elderly residents in underserved communities. Focusing on counties where the Center
has relationships and client communities, Center lawyers
worked with students in clinics in Edgecombe County (Rocky
Mount), Halifax County (Weldon and Scotland Neck), and Lenoir County (Kinston). Over three days, and under the supervision of lawyers from Legal Aid and the Center, 19 students
drafted 179 documents for 67 clients exceeding the goal of 20
clients per day, and setting a new record for the program.
Board of Advisors
James F. Goodmon, President & CEO
Capitol Broadcasting Company
Jane Pigott, Chair and Managing Director
R3 Group LLC
James B. Hunt, Jr., Former Governor
State of North Carolina
Andrea Bazan, President & Chairman
Triangle Community Foundation
Robert A. Ingram, General Partner
Hatteras Venture Partners
John Charles Boger, Dean and Wade
Edwards Distinguished Professor of
Law,
UNC School of Law
James H. Johnson, Jr., Kenan Distinguished Professor of Management
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
William Darity, Jr.,
Duke Sanford School of Public Policy
Charles Daye, Deputy Director
UNC Center for Civil Rights
Martin Eakes, President & CEO
Center for Community Self-Help
Joel Fleishman, Professor of Law and
Public Policy Terry Sanford Institute,
Duke University
Richard Rosen
UNC School of Law
John Rosenberg Director Emeritus
Appalachian Research and Defense Fund
of Kentucky, Inc.
Sallie Shuping Russell, Managing Director
BlackRock
William Johnson, Esq.
Johnson & Johnson, P.A.
Charles A. Sanders Chairman & CEO
(Retired)
Glaxo, Inc.
Irving Joyner, Professor
NC Central University School of Law
Mary Duke B. Trent Semans, Chairwoman Emeritus
Duke Endowment
Thomas W. Lambeth, Senior Fellow
Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
Wendell A. McCain
Verde Asset Management, Chairman
Reginald (Reggie) T. Shuford, Director of
Law and Policy
Equal Justice Society San Francisco, CA
Adam Stein, Partner
James L. Peacock III, Kenan DistinFerguson Stein Chambers
guished Professor
UNC Chapel Hill Dept. of Anthropology Mr. Timothy B Tyson, Research ScholarWilliam Friday, President Emeritus
Duke University
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Teresa Roseborough
Chief Litigation Counsel Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company
Van Hecke-Wettach Hall
160 Ridge Rd., CB # 3380
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
ww.law.unc.edu
UNC CENTER FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
Center Staff
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
Charles Daye,
Deputy Director and Brandis Professor of Law
The Center‟s mission is to advance civil rights and social justice, especially in the
American South. The Center strives to empower individuals and communities to
overcome economic disadvantages, racial discrimination, social isolation, governmental unfairness, and political exclusion.
Adrienne Davis,
Director of Research, Community
Services, and Student Programs
Current Initiatives
Mark Dorosin,
Senior Attorney
Elizabeth Haddix,
Staff Attorney
Peter Gilbert,
Community Inclusion and Economic Development Fellow
Benita Jones,
Educational Advancement and
Fair Opportunities Fellow
Education Advancement and Fair Opportunities
Promoting educational opportunities by seeking resource equity and diversity in K
-12 and advancing diversity in higher education.
Community Inclusion and Economic Development
Enhancing low-income and minority communities by combating municipal exclusion, protecting assets in land, and promoting fair housing.
Strategies for Pursuing These Initiatives
Community Empowerment: helping communities organize and advocate for
solutions to their needs
Public Advocacy: bringing public attention to problems and issues
Legal Protection: when required, engaging in litigation and seeking new legislation to protect rights
Advancing Knowledge: conducting and disseminating scholarship and research
Contact Information
UNC Center for Civil Rights
UNC School of Law Annex,
Campus Box 3382
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3382
www.law.unc.edu/centers/civilrights
civilrights@unc.edu
919.843.3921
Hands-on Conferences: convening conferences for community advocates, public officials, scholars, and students
Training the Next Generation: attracting and involving law students to become
civil rights and social justice advocates
Joining With Advocates: connecting with state, regional, and national social
justice organizations