NAACP leaders link school fight with civil rights movement

NAACP leaders link Wake school fight with civil rights movement

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/06/22/546358/naacp-leaders-link-wake-school.html

By T. Keung Hui - Staff writer
6/22/2010

RALEIGH -- In an attempt to draw parallels with civil rights leader
Martin Luther King Jr., a pair of local activists issued a letter
today explaining why they were willing to be arrested to oppose the
end of Wake County's school diversity policy.

In the letter, the Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, and
the Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, write
that their actions were decided to force the community to confront
the issues now facing the school system. They were among four people
arrested for disrupting last week's school board meeting.

Their letter is a direct play on Rev. King's famous "Letter from
Birmingham Jail," which he wrote in 1963 after being arrested for
protesting municipal segregation in Birmingham. Ala. King argued in
the letter that direct action through non-violent demonstrations were
needed to combat segregation.

"In the best American traditions, from Henry David Thoreau to Ella
Baker to Martin Luther King, Jr., we recognize the necessary place of
civil disobedience: breaking a small and unjust law in order to
protect a larger and broadly significant law," Barber and Petty write.

Their letter is called "Thoughts While we were Being Handcuffed, and
Processed at the Wake County Jail on June 15 after Engaging in an Act
of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience."

Supporters of Wake's diversity policy have repeatedly tried to link
their fight with that of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and
1960s. They've argued that the school board majority's elimination of
the socioeconomic diversity policy will lead to racial resegregation
of Wake's schools.

"Our actions are a call to the community," Barber and Petty write.
"There is a tragedy unfolding in Wake County, but it is not confined
to Wake County. What is happening in Wake County is a national issue."

Opponents of the board majority have held mass protests, engaged in
acts of civil disobedience and sung civil rights era songs at school
board meetings and rallies. Tim Tyson, a Duke University historian
and author who was among those arrested at last week's board meeting,
has repeatedly tried to tie the call for neighborhood schools with
George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama.

Barber announced Monday a mass demonstration in Raleigh on July 20 to
coincide with that day's school board meeting.

School board member John Tedesco, a member of the majority, said it
was "galling" that Barber and Petty would try to compare themselves
with "great civil rights leaders like Dr. King." Tedesco said that
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is one of his favorite pieces of
literature and that he felt that Barber and Petty were "mocking" it
with their letter.
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keung.hui@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4534

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