NC NAACP Humanitarian Awards Banquet
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Abundant Life Christian Center
4400 Old Poole Rd., Raleigh, NC 27610
Doors open at 6:00 pm, Banquet begins at 7:00 pm
Humanitarian of the Year Honoree is Civil Rights Attorney Anita Earls
Charles B. McLean Award Honoree is Mr. Calvin C. Henderson, President of the Pitt County Branch NAACP
Pre-HKonJ Worship Service
7:00 P.M. on Friday, February 8th, 2013
Located at the Rush Metropolitan AME Zion Church on 558 E. Cabarrus St. in Raleigh, NC.
NC NAACP and HKonJ Coalition Partners Announce 7th Annual HKonJ People's Assembly and Poor People's March for Economic Justice
Simultaneous Statewide News Conferences to Be Held on Anniversary of Greensboro Sit-Ins
RALEIGH - The NC NAACP and HKonJ Coalition partners will hold a news conference on Friday, February 1 in Raleigh to announce the 7th Annual Historic Thousands on Jones Street People's Assembly (HKonJ), where thousands will march on the NC General Assembly on Saturday, February 9, 2013. The news conference falls on the 53rd Anniversary of the Greensboro Sit-Ins where four students refused to leave a segregated lunch counter at a Woolworth's on February 1, 1960.
WHO: NC NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, HKonJ Coalition Partners, veteran civil rights activists including Bob Zellner, former Field Secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which was an outgrowth of the Sit-Ins, and other NAACP branch presidents and supporters.
WHERE: NC Justice Center, 224 S Dawson Street, Raleigh, NC 27601.
WHEN: Friday, February 1, 2013, 10:00 AM - Anniversary of the Greensboro Sit-Ins.
"We have to challenge what seems to be an Old South mentality of going backward rather than forward in the NC General Assembly," said Rev. Barber. "What concerns us about this Legislature is that their first order of business is not creating jobs, but is cutting unemployment benefits, refusing federal money for Medicare and Medicaid expansion and proposing voter suppression legislation. Fifty-three years ago on Friday, a group of young people from NC A&T University, organized on the campus of Bennett College, took the heroic step to challenge the Old South mentality. Fifty-three years later, with the blood of martyrs and a generation of heroes behind us, it is shameful we have to defend the same voting rights and economic justice they fought and even died for. We honor them and the Student Movement that grew out of their actions by continuing to build the Movement at the HKonJ People's Assembly."
News conference participants will also 1) Ask the Governor and Legislative leadership to meet face to face with poor people, unemployed people and those in need of health care to explain to them why they are refusing federal funds for programs that would help provide marginalized communities their basic needs and why these draconian actions adhere to elected officials' sworn promise to do what is best for "the good of the whole". 2) The coalition will read an email from a first-year legislator who called the efforts of the NAACP and its coalition partners, "racist opportunists" because of their opposition to voter suppression tactics, which reveals the real attitude behind the proposed actions of the NC General Assembly leadership.
"Simultaneous news conferences are planned across the state to announce grassroots efforts to mobilize for February 9," Rev. Barber continued. "NAACP leadership representing 125 branches, college chapters and youth councils, and HKonJ Coalition partner organizations, which number over 140 now, will outline responses to the first week of activities in the NC General Assembly and the ultra-conservative and extreme policies that are coming forward from the Legislative leadership.
This year, the NC NAACP and the HKonJ People's Coalition are focusing on five areas that the Governor and all legislators must and should commit themselves to if they are to fulfill the Constitutional and Moral Mandates of a just society.
- Economic sustainability and ending poverty by fighting for full employment, living wages, the alleviation of disparate unemployment, a green economy, labor rights, affordable housing, targeted empowerment zones, strong safety net services for the poor, fair policies for immigrants, infrastructure development and fair tax reform;
- Educational equality by ensuring every child receives a high quality, well-funded, Constitutional, diverse public education, access to Community Colleges and Universities and equitable funding for minority colleges and universities.
- Healthcare for all by ensuring access to the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security and providing environmental protection;
- Fairness in the criminal justice system by addressing the continuing inequalities in the system and providing equal protection under the law for black, brown and poor white people;
- Voting rights by defending the right to vote and expanding voting rights for all people by standing against suppression tactics, such as voter ID, restriction of Early Voting, race-based redistricting, or any other effort that undermines equal protection under the law.
Other news conferences will be held across the state at these locations:
Charlotte:
Friday, February 1, 2013 10:00 am
Little Rock AME Zion Church
401 N McDowell St, Charlotte, NC
Contact: Rev. Kojo Nantambu, Charlotte NAACP Branch President, 704-641-7951 or 704-599-8904, kojo.nantambu@naacpnc.org
Greensboro
Friday, February 1, 2013 10:00 am
New Light Missionary Baptist Church
1105 Willow Road, Greensboro, NC
Contact: Millicent Lee, Greensboro NAACP Branch Secretary, 336-273-5579,2millicent@gmail.com
Fayetteville
Friday, February 1, 2013 2:00 pm
Fayetteville NAACP Branch Office
609 Murchison Road, Fayetteville, NC
Contact: James Buxton, Fayetteville NAACP Branch President, 910-484-6166,jebux32347@aol.com
Greenville
Friday, February 1, 2013 2:00 pm
Greenville NAACP Branch Office
800 W. Fifth Street, Greenville, NC
Contact: Calvin Henderson, Pitt County NAACP Branch President, 252-758-7645
Wilmington
Friday, February 1, 2013 5:00 pm
St. Stephens AME Church
501 Red Cross Street, Wilmington, NC
Contact: Deborah Maxwell, New Hanover County NAACP Branch President, 910-264-5643,nhcnaacp@gmail.com
Elizabeth City
Friday, February 1, 2013
Contact: Keith Rivers, Pasquotank County NAACP Branch President, 252-267-6868
Poverty & Economic Justice Legislative Briefing
Tuesday, January 15, 2013,
Beginning at 9:00 a.m.
At The People's House
The North Carolina General Assembly - Legislative Auditorium
16 West Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27601
Join us as we remind the Governor and members of the NC General Assembly, who recently swore on the Bible to uphold the North Carolina Constitution, that Article I , Sect. 2 of the Constitution requires them to govern "for the good of the whole." The policy briefing's theme is:
"Addressing Poverty and Economic Justice in NC."
Registration begins at 9:00 a.m.; a 30-minute powerful documentary based on the 2012 Truth and Hope Poverty Tour at 9:30 will be screened at 9:30 to begin the program.
On Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s actual birthday, we will come together to present and address the issue of poverty and economic disparities. The key issues which must interconnect in order to address the issue of poverty and economic justice include:
- Economic sustainability - addressing poverty, full employment, living wages, disparate unemployment and labor rights, affordable housing, minority access to contracts, targeted empowerment zones and fair tax reform;
- Educational equality - every child deserves a high quality, well-funded, constitutional, diverse public education - and equal access to community colleges and universities;
- Healthcare for all - ensuring access to and protection of Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security and providing environmental protection;
- Addressing the continuing inequalities in the criminal justice system for black, brown and poor white people;
- Protecting, defending and expanding voting rights for all people.
We will re-emphasize our call to North Carolina's leadership to "stay moderate in the face of extremism" - the subject of a petition that was first released Friday, January 4, 2013. We will personally deliver the petition and DVD of the documentary to legislative offices after the briefing.
FORWARD TOGETHER, NOT ONE STEP BACK!
