Citing inefficiencies, North Carolina is considering breaking up its countywide school districts. Critics see this as opening the door to resegregation. Originally published in CityLab. WHEN I MOVED TO DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, in the mid-1980s, the county had two separate school systems. At its center, like a bulls-eye, was the city system, which was overwhelmingly […]
Law and Disorder in North Carolina
Since Republicans gained control of the North Carolina legislature in 2011, judges have emerged as some of their staunchest adversaries. Now lawmakers want to curb state court powers. Originally published in The American Prospect. THIS FALL, IN A DISPUTE OVER GERRYMANDERING, federal judges stripped North Carolina lawmakers of the power to draw their own state district lines. […]
Democracy on the Line
How the GOP uses redistricting to maintain power in the purple state of North Carolina. Originally published in The Nation. JEFF JACKSON WAS A YOUNG PROSECUTOR living in Charlotte, North Carolina, when a seat in the State Senate unexpectedly opened up in 2014. To Jackson, politics seemed like an antidote to the daily frustration of […]
Durham Residents Counter White Supremacists
The fear was that Klansmen would come to replicate the violence that had just racked Charlottesville. Originally published in The Nation. LAST FRIDAY MORNING, A REPORT spread through my hometown of Durham, North Carolina, that white supremacists were descending on downtown. “We are carefully monitoring the situation,” said an all-points bulletin to city workers, “and are taking precautions […]
Toppled! Ridding Durham of Its Racist Monument
The liberal city wanted it down; the GOP state legislature forbade that; activists found a way to end that impasse. Originally published in The American Prospect. JILLIAN JOHNSON WAS OUT of town Monday night, as a group of young activists were yanking the Confederate soldier statue off its granite pedestal in downtown Durham, North Carolina. She learned […]
Timelessness on His Hands
Click here for “Timelessness on His Hands,” Carolina Alumni Review,” July-August 2017 issue. Opens as a PDF.
N.C. on the Brink: Repeal of Anti-Trans Bill Falls Flat
At ground zero in the fight over LGBTQ rights, a special legislative session to repeal the state’s House Bill 2 devolved into name-calling and hostile stalemate. Originally published in The American Prospect. DURING THE LONGEST NIGHT of the year—after what had felt like the longest day—North Carolina Governor-elect Roy Cooper walked into a Raleigh news conference […]
Will GOP Power Seizure in North Carolina Become National Model?
A bid by North Carolina’s GOP-controlled legislature to strip power from the state’s incoming Democratic governor has prompted another round of progressive protests and civil disobedience. Originally published in The American Prospect. WHEN COMMUNITY EDUCATOR MANJU RAJENDRAN and her eight-month-old daughter arrived at the North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh on December 15, the House […]
History Matters
North Carolina’s jarring GOP power grab feels familiar. Originally published in The Washington Post. ONE OF THE MOST SURREAL moments during last week’s fracas at the North Carolina legislature came during a news conference called by the state NAACP. The civil rights organization was blasting the Republican legislative majority for its brazen efforts to strip authority from […]
Counterprotests Swamp KKK Celebration
A Ku Klux Klan gathering both recalled North Carolina’s racially troubled history and demonstrated the strength and diversity of the state’s civil rights movement today. Originally published in The American Prospect. IN THE END, SATURDAY’S “Victory Klavalkade”—a celebration of Donald Trump’s presidency by the North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan—turned out […]
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