RALEIGH -- Joined by representatives of some of the stateÂ’s largest church groups, civil rights leaders urged people today to join them in a mass march on July 20 against the Wake County school boardÂ’s elimination of the socioeconomic diversity policy.
Speakers argued that the new school board majority’s elimination of busing for diversity in favor of neighborhood schools will lead to resegregation. Comparisons to the old southern Jim Crow segregation laws and words such as “evil” were tossed out about the board majority during emotional speeches today.
“This crowd is trying to make a U-turn in a settled public policy in Wake and set an even more regressive model for the state and nation,” said the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, at today’s press conference.
Barber said the march will begin at 10 a.m. July 20 in front of the Raleigh Convention Center in downtown Raleigh. The marchers will head up Fayetteville Street toward the state Capitol Building.
After the march, Barber said he and group of people will attend that afternoon’s school board meeting. Barber said it will be up to the “moral conscience” of each person who attends whether they want to engage in civil disobedience at the board meeting.
Barber and three other people were arrested on second-degree trespassing charges for disrupting the June 15 school board meeting.
Members of the board majority and their supporters argue they should be given a chance to implement their new assignment model. They argue that the old policy didnÂ’t help minority and poor students, noting their low test scores and graduation rates.
"I don't know what their motivation is," said school board chairman Ron Margiotta. "Why didn't these people go after the Wake County school system before for the poor performance under the diversity policy?"
The new school board majority, which took control after four new members were elected last fall, recently ended the districtÂ’s longstanding busing for diversity policy. A committee is now reviewing how to divide the county into several community assignment zones designed to send children to schools closer to where they live.
Opponents of the board majority have been reaching out to churches who would be considered moderate to liberal on theological and political issues. Barber previously had gotten the backing of the Eastern North Carolina District of the AME Zion Church, which has 40,000 members.
Today, Barber was joined by representatives from the General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and the N.C. Council of Churches, which all threw in the support of their congregations behind the rally.
“We are here because we don’t want to see our children’s potential disrupted or disregarded,” said Dr. John Mendez, of the General Baptist State Convention, which has around 400,000 members among the state’s black Baptist churches.
