HKonJ.com -- Historic Thousands on Jones Street in Raleigh Annually in Support of a Progressive Agenda, & NCProsecutorialmisconduct.com

How “HK on J” Highlights the Difference Between Progressives and Conservatives

Rob Schofield, NC Policy Watch writes that HKONJ symbolizes the diverging world views of conservatives and progressives. Doctrinaire conservatives believe that "the principal objective of life is to acquire property and the main reason for having a government is to aid us in that quest."

“Progress” may occur – in material wealth and human comfort – but only to the extent we constantly rededicate ourselves to the insights of espoused by the white, western European men of the 1700’s.

In sharp contrast, progressives look to the future. They "believe that many of the most important advances in the history of humanity (the development of democratic government, the end of slavery, the ongoing (albeit agonizingly slow) demise of racism and sexism and homophobia and child labor, the very contemplation of the idea of “human rights”) are the byproducts of intentional, collective action by people of good will who dared to dream. Future progress depends on humans continuing to dream and give voice to audacious demands.

Anyone who doubts the reality of this critical distinction between modern progressives and conservatives would have done well to join the thousands of North Carolinians who descended upon downtown Raleigh this past weekend to participate in the “HK on J” march and rally.

HK on J (for “Historic Thousands of Jones Street”) is the public face of a growing non-partisan, multi-racial, multi-ethnic movement for progressive policy change. The movement features, at last count, 82 partner organizations that have come together to promote a 14-point “People’s Agenda.” 

Read the whole thing (a very thoughtful column).       

HKONJ Agenda is Focus of Gubernatorial Candidates' Debate

The original fourteen points of the HKONJ agenda, as well as concerns about prosecutorial misconduct, were the focus of a debate by 2008 candidates for governor, in an early February forum sponsored by the NC NAACP in Durham. WRALTV is streaming the entire debate on its website. Watch it now. Additional Media coverage: "Four Spar in Heated Durham Debate; NAACP Event to be Broadcast Monday," News and Observer.com; "Four NC Governors' Candidates Answer NAACP Questions," Associated Press. "Forum Puts Candidates in Hot Seat," News 14.

14 Points: A Summary

THE PEOPLE'S AGENDA:
14 POINTS

1. All Children Need High Quality, Well Funded, Diverse Schools. NC must meet its Constitution's requirement of adequate and diverse schools by fully funding Leandro with transparent accountability and creating special leadership teams in its failing schools. (Video clip and detailed text)
2. Livable Wages and Support for Low Income People. NC ought to provide livable wages, make sure no person goes hungry and that everyone in need has affordable, accessible childcare. (Video clip and detailed text)
3. Health Care for All. NC ought to provide its people with health insurance and prescription drugs, while funding public health programs to treat social diseases that plague Black and poor communities including HIV/AIDS, diseases caused by environmental pollution and warming, drugs, domestic violence, mental illness, diabetes, and obesity. (Video clip and detailed text)
4. Redress Two Ugly Chapters in N. C.'s Racist History: The overthrow of the bi-racial 1898 Wilmington Government and the sterilization of poor, mainly Black, women from 1947-1977. NC must implement its 1898 Wilmington Riot Commission recommendations and pay damages to the poor women it forcibly sterilized. (detailed text)
5. Same Day Registration and Public Financing of Elections. (Video clip and detailed text)
6. Lift Every HBCU. NC must financially support our Historically Black Colleges and Universities to develop equitable infrastructure and programs with doctoral-level leadership for today's challenges. (Video clip and detailed text)
7. Document and Redress 200 years of State Discrimination in Hiring and Contracting.
   NC must commission historical documentation of its contracting practices with racial minorities to justify constitutional redress. (Video clip and detailed text)
8. Provide Affordable Housing and Stop Consumer Abuse. NC must provide an Affordable Housing Trust Fund for low-income renters, vouchers for wounded veterans who can not find accessible housing, meaningful tax breaks for seniors forced out of their homes, and protection against predatory lending and foreclosures. (Video clip and detailed text)
9. Abolish Racially Biased Death Penalty and Mandatory Sentencing Laws; Reform our Prisons. (Video clip and detailed text)
10. Put Young People to Work to Save the Environment and Fight for Environmental Justice.
    NC must establish an Environmental Job Corps for young people who did not graduate from high school to re-engage them in public service. NC must fight all forms of environmental injustice. (Video clip and detailed text)
11. Collective Bargaining for Public Employees and Support Smithfield Workers Right to Unionize. NC must support the right of Smithfield workers in Tar Heel to form a union and work in a safe environment, and support collective bargaining for public employees. (Video Clip and detailed text)
12. Protect the Rights of Immigrants from Latin America and other Nations. NC must provide immigrants with health care, education, workers rights and protection from discrimination. (Video clip and detailed text)
13. Organize, Strengthen and Provide Funding For Our Civil Rights Enforcement Agencies and Statutes Now. (Video clip and detailed text)
14. Bring Our Troops Home from Iraq Now. NC cannot address injustice at home while we wage an unjust war abroad. (Video clip and detailed text)

Point Fourteen: Bring Our Troops Home from Iraq Now!

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North Carolina cannot address injustice at home while we wage an unjust war abroad.  North Carolina should urge that the United States bring American troops home so that no more North Carolina lives are wasted or devastated because of an unjust war.

Debra Tyler-Horton: We have been criticized for taking a strong stand against this racist, unjust war.  But that is our duty.  Here are Lanya Shapiro from TRACTION, and Rev. Curtis Gatewood, the State NAACP 2d V. P. to tell you why.

Lanya Shapiro: DID YOU KNOW That the reasons we were given for invading the sovereign nation of Iraq have proven to be unfounded, misleading, manipulative, and down right lies?

Did you know that No weapons of mass destruction were found after almost five years, although that was the main reason we were told we needed to invade Iraq?

Did you know that our own Government does not bother to count the number of Iraqis who have died in the war?

Did you know that Some estimates conclude that as many as 600,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S. Invasion and we know that over 3,000 Americans have died and countless have been injured since the invasion?

Did you know that the United Nations Secretary General declared the U.S. invasion of Iraq was illegal?

Did you know that our state, N.C., has the third most troops in Iraq of any other state?

Did you know that over 6,000 soldiers from North Carolina are on duty in Iraq and more than 23,000 are slated to deploy there in coming months?

Did you know this war cost our nation the respect and trust of people around the world, and our government has admitted to torture, cruel and inhumane punishment?

Rev. Curtis Gatewood: THEREFORE, We must continue building a massive public Movement to stop this war, bring our troops home now, take care of the sick and wounded, and beg forgiveness for what has been done in our name.

THEREFORE, we demand that our legislature debate and pass a strong resolution to be sent to the bi-partisan anti-war group in our Congressional delegation, 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans,  and encourage our two Senators and the remaining 4 Representatives who are leading us into deeper quicksand to come to their senses and represent the wishes of the N.C. people.

Point Thirteen: Organize, Strengthen and Provide Funding For Our Civil Rights Enforcement Agencies and Statutes Now

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To help make us One North Carolina, and to help the weak grow strong, we must strengthen the enforcement of our civil rights laws.  Here are A. J. Donaldson, from and Al McSurely, Chair of the NAACP State legal redress committee

A.J. Donaldson: DID YOU KNOW that our State statutes do not cover employment discrimination by private employers?

DID YOU KNOW that our State statutes do prohibit employment discrimination against most State employees, but not county or municipal employees, but they do not provide adequate remedies when discrimination has been found?

DID YOU KNOW that most states, including South Carolina, have set up a state agency to investigate and challenge employment discrimination, with remedies as strong as those in federal civil rights laws?

AL McSURELY: THEREFORE, That’s Why We Demand that the General Assembly must collate and update  the hodge-podge of anti-discrimination statutes that have evolved since the l970’s, providing adequate remedies when discrimination has been found.

AND, that’s why we demand the State strengthen the few agencies it now has, so they can do their job of eliminating racism from the workplace and the housing field.

Point Twelve: Protect the Rights of Immigrants from Latin America and other Nations

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North Carolina should provide immigrants with health care, education, workers rights and protection from discrimination.

Debra Tyler-Horton, NC Justice Center: We must unite with our Hispanic neighbors in our joint struggle against the racist system. African Americans, more than any other group of Americans, know what it is like to be treated as second class “citizens” with no voice and no power.  Here are Erin Byrd, from Southerners for Economic Justice and Marisol Jimenez-McGee of El Pueblo.

ERIN BYRD: DID YOU KNOW the U.S. is now processing 14 year old applications from 1993 for U.S. Citizens trying to bring their spouse and/or children here from Mexico?

DID YOU KNOW that Over 4,000 immigrants have died in the Arizona and New Mexico deserts in recent years just trying to find work and trying to get their families together in the U.S.?

Did You know that immigrant workers who have not been able to get their papers still contribute about $8.5 billion in taxes to Social Security and Medicare every year?

DID YOU KNOW the present laws prevent immigrants with all their papers from getting Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps for their first five years here? 

Did you know that immigrant students who have not yet received their papers are not allowed to take college courses in most of the NC community colleges and must pay $12,000 out-of-pocket to attend a public university? 

Did you know that North Carolina does not require big farm owners to provide mattresses, access to phones or visitors to their migrant workers?

Did you know that 60% of N.C. migrant workers earn between $2,500 and $5,000 a year.

Marisol Jimenez-McGee:Therefore, we demand the North Carolina General Assembly urge the federal government to enact comprehensive and humane immigration reform.

We demand the stopping local law enforcement from enforcing non-criminal, immigration violations and deny due process to persons because of their immigration status.

We demand laws to improve housing and workplace standards for migrant workers.

We demand undocumented workers be able to protect their rights in the workplace, such as minimum wage, workers’ compensation, payment of wages which would protect the rights of all workers.

And We Demand all N.C. children have access to higher education – regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Point Ten: Put Young People to Work to Save the Environment and Fight for Environmental Justice

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Debra Tyler-Horton, Justice Center: North Carolina should establish an Environmental Job Corps for young people who did not graduate from high school to re-engage them in public service. Here is Margie Ellison from NC WARN and Sharelle Barber, President of the Student Body at Bennett to explain how we want to put young people to work for Environmental Justice.

Margie Ellison: DID YOU KNOW the Environmental Justice movement started in North Carolina in 1982 when Black people in Warren County protested against dumping deadly PCB’s in their community?

DID YOU KNOW that over 60% of African Americans and Latinos in the U.S. live in communities with toxic waste landfills?

DID YOU KNOW THAT hog farms in N.C. generate more raw sewage than 15 million people do—twice as many people who live in N.C.?

Did you know that Minority communities have six times as many hog farms as mostly white areas?

DID YOU KNOW that today, right now, right here in our own state, people of color are getting sicker and some are dying because of the recent devastating hurricanes caused by Global Warming?   

DID YOU KNOW that H.S. Dropouts and Kick outs make up more than half the prison population.

Did you KNOW that a recent report from the N.C. New Schools Project found that our H.S. drop-out rate increased substantially in the past school year, 2005-2006, despite more attention by the courts?

Sharelle Barber: THEREFORE, To Address both  the educational and environmental injustices, we demand the North Carolina General Assembly  Fund one Environmental Youth Job paying at least $18,000/year for every young person who drops out or is constructively discharged from school. 

We DEMAND the state set up the N.C. Environmental Justice Youth Board, with NAACP and Environmental Justice representatives on it to administer the Environmental Justice Youth program.

We DEMAND the State outlaw placing any more pollution sources near low-income and predominantly African American communities.

WE DEMAND the State require all state programs and contracts promote conservation, non-fossil fuels, and other technologies that will develop our economy while cleaning and sustaining our environment.

Point Nine: Abolish Racially Biased Death Penalty and Mandatory Sentencing Laws; Reform our Prisons

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Stella Adams: Black people, because of our history, have less means to defend ourselves against the criminal justice system.  Jeremy Collins of the Moratorium Coalition, Landon Adams from the Lost Generation Task Force, and Carnell Robinson from the N.C. Black Leadership Caucus will explain.

Jeremy Collins: Did you know that Race is a matter of life and death in the criminal justice system?  Did you know a defendant's odds of receiving a death sentence are 4.4 times higher if the victim is white than if the victim is African-American?   

DID YOU KNOW that 37 people on NC’s death row were represented at trial by lawyers who would not meet today’s minimum standards of qualification?

Did you know only two of the State’s 39 D.A.’s are Black?

Landon Adams:  Did you know that by the time Black men reach 35, 6 out of 10 who had not graduated from high school had spent time in prison?

Did you know Judges are now forced to give fixed prison terms to “habitual” offenders and that 74% of those convicted as habitual felons are African-American?

Did you know in the past 15 years the state’s prison population has grown from about 21,000 in  to about 34,000 and  increase of 62% compared to the 21% growth in the state’s total population growth?

DID YOU Know about half of the prison inmates are non-violent criminals?

DID YOU KNOW that drug-use rates among blacks and whites are similar, almost 70% of the state's drug-crime prisoners last year were black, compared to only 18% who were white?

DID YOU KNOW that that 70% of inmates entering state prisons have not graduated from high school and 40% are functionally illiterate?

DID YOU KNOW that for some young people, the prison system could represent the State’s second chance to meet its constitutional duty to provide adequate and effective education for all its citizens?

CARNELL ROBINSON: Therefore we demand The State Abolish the death penalty.

We Demand the State abolish the disproportionate mandatory sentencing of minorities.

We demand the state Fully fund Alternative Sentencing programs, drug courts, mental health courts, drug rehabilitation programs and other alternatives to incarceration.

We demand a moratorium on prison construction and instead fully fund public education, alternative sentencing programs, and literacy programs that will decrease recidivism.

We demand the Department of Corrections work with the Department of Public Instruction to insure that all able inmates learn to read and write on computers while in prison within two years.

We demand that non-violent and able inmates be immediately placed in full-time education/job training programs.

We demand a joint NAACP/Department of Correction Program, where NAACP branches are formed in every prison to strengthen ties to their families and communities to facilitate re-entry into society.

Point Eight: Provide Affordable Housing and Stop Consumer Abuse

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North Carolina should provide more Affordable Housing for low-income workers, seniors, veterans, and any other person that cannot find affordable housing. NC should also help citizens protect their wealth by increasing protections against home foreclosure, predatory mortgage lending, and high interest small consumer loans.

Debra Tyler Horton, NC Justice Center: It is immoral that millions of North Carolinians cannot find an affordable, clean and safe home. Here are Maria Spaulding and Barbara Goodman to ask and answer some tough questions. or apartment.

Maria Spaulding DID YOU KNOW that predatory mortgage lending practices to our people, who by definition are “poor credit risks” are driving foreclosure rates to an all time high? Did YOU KNOW greedy lenders are trying to get rid of the State’s 36% interest cap to fleece poor people coming and going? DID YOU KNOW that many of our wounded soldiers returning to N.C. from Iraq cannot find accessible housing? DID YOU KNOW that The average house price in NC in 2005 was $193,000? DID YOU KNOW over 2 million North Carolinians cannot afford a decent place to live? DID YOU KNOW that between 1998 and 2006 foreclosure filings in NC jumped nearly 180 % from 16,630 to 45,512?

Barbara Goodmon That’s Why We Demand that the General Assembly fund a legal team to enforce the Veterans rights to disability payments and accessible housing in our state. That’s Why We Demand that the General Assembly Fund the NC Housing Trust Fund with $50 million in recurring funding.

That’s Why We Demand that the General Assembly Protect consumers against all forms of predatory lending and maintain the state’s interest cap on payday lending.

That’s Why We Demand that the General Assembly expand protections for college students, poor people and other vulnerable populations from debt-mongers. And that’s why we demand the legislature expand the NC Home Protection Pilot Program and provide better protections against unsuitable and predatory home mortgage loans.

Point Seven: Document and Redress 200 years of State Discrimination in Hiring and Contracting

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North Carolina should commission historical documentation of its contracting practices with racial minorities to justify constitutional redress.

REV Barber: For most of the State’s 220 year existence, the state of North Carolina has exploited Black labor and discriminated against Black businesses to the benefit of White-owned businesses. Here are Brother Farad Ali, Sue Perry Cole, Keith Sutton, and Andrea Harris to break it down:

Farad Ali: DID YOU KNOW our oldest State Agencies—the University in Chapel Hill and the small set of public agencies run by the Governor--—used slaves to do much of their labor, paying them nothing for 70 years? DID YOU KNOW that for many years the Department of Transportation used convict labor, mainly Black men who were Guilty of nothing but being poor, on the road gains, paying them nothing?

Keith Sutton: DID YOU KNOW that for the last 60 years or so since WWII, when a few Black businesses were able to try to get contracts with the State, the State never has agreed to giving more than 3-4% to Black owned business, although we constituted over 30% of the available labor and business pool after the Civil War. DID YOU KNOW that the Supreme Court found, in Croson v. Richmond, that N.C. could address its clear-cut history of past race discrimination against Black businesses by doing a historical and statistical study of its history that would justify thoughtful programs to redress its past economic crimes?

Andrea Harris: We demand the legislature fund a team of historians and statisticians to carefully document the 200+ years of state discrimination in hiring and contracting. We demand the legislature Retain national experts who have successfully advocated for and implemented specific set-aside programs for racial minorities, so they will zealously defend this program in court from the inevitable challenge of big white contractors and their trade organizations that established and benefited from a state-sanctioned white set-aside system for generations.

We Demand the State fund special support centers at Community Colleges and HBCU’s throughout the State to help minority-owned businesses get incorporated, help bid on jobs, get insurance, and other paper work so small Black contractors can quickly take full advantage of the new business opportunities.