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The Battle Of Brandy Creek: How One Black Community Fought Annexation, Tax Revaluation, And Displacement, Mark Dorosin
The Battle Of Brandy Creek: How One Black Community Fought Annexation, Tax Revaluation, And Displacement, Mark Dorosin
Journal Publications
The Brandy Creek community is a working class, Black neighborhood located just east of I-95, south of Weldon, North Carolina.' In 2005, this rural neighborhood and its surrounding land were legislatively annexed into the city of Roanoke Rapids as part of a planned economic development project. The decision to pursue legislative annexation allowed city officials to bypass the statutory notice and municipal service requirements of a city-initiated, involuntary annexation. Residents were never informed of Roanoke Rapids' intent to annex the community and had no opportunity to voice their opinions on the issue to town officials. In fact, the community first …
Am I Angry? You Bet I Am! Watching The George Floyd Murder Trial, Cheryl Page
Am I Angry? You Bet I Am! Watching The George Floyd Murder Trial, Cheryl Page
Journal Publications
We have come a mighty long way in our criminal justice system. We have gone from a period of time when people of African descent were not considered humans and were deliberately excluded from serving on jury panels to seeing Black judges, defense attorneys and prosecuting attorneys taking part in selecting more diverse juries. Progress has been made, but how far have we really journeyed, and are the vestiges of racial animus and discrimination from the Jim Crow era truly eradicated? One need not look further than the current criminal trial we are witnessing of former Minneapolis police officer Derek …
Historically Black Colleges & Universities: A Model For American Education, Jennifer M. Smith
Historically Black Colleges & Universities: A Model For American Education, Jennifer M. Smith
Journal Publications
Hungry for freedom and knowledge, enslaved Blacks engaged in a massive general strike against slavery by transferring their labor from the Confederate planter to the Northern invader, and this decided the Civil War. In 1865, the North conquered the South, and slavery officially ended. Having been starved of the opportunity to learn to read or write, the recently emancipated Blacks were eager to learn. Within a year after slavery ended, however, Florida and other Southern states enacted laws to ensure the continuation of the vestiges of slavery in the United States. The legacy of slavery and racism evolved into an …
North Carolina's H.B.2: A Case Study In Lgbtq Rights, Preemption, And The (Un)Democratic Process, Mark Dorosin
North Carolina's H.B.2: A Case Study In Lgbtq Rights, Preemption, And The (Un)Democratic Process, Mark Dorosin
Journal Publications
In 2014, community advocates in Charlotte, North Carolina, began organizing to press the city to amend its antidiscrimination ordinance to add several new protected classes, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. After a contentious hearing where opponents argued that the change-which would allow transgender people to use public restrooms according to their gender identity-would subject women and children to "sexual predators," the city council voted down the amendment. Undaunted, advocates worked over the next several months to elect new council members and a mayor who supported LGBTQ rights. The amendments to the civil rights ordinance were then brought …
Unbowed, Unbroken, And Unsung: The Unrecognized Contributions Of African American Women In Social Movement, Politics, And The Maintenance Of Democracy, Patricia A. Broussard
Unbowed, Unbroken, And Unsung: The Unrecognized Contributions Of African American Women In Social Movement, Politics, And The Maintenance Of Democracy, Patricia A. Broussard
Journal Publications
Black women have made huge contributions to American society in movements, politics, and maintenance of the democracy. Black women have been relegated to footnotes, turned in memes, and largely ignored in politics and other areas of power. Notwithstanding the disrespect, disregard, and failures of the larger society to acknowledge that black own have made significant contributions, not only in the in entertainment industry, but in numerous other ways that have shaped out cultural and political landscape, black women's contributions to the larger society have been huge and impactful; yet there are so many blank spaces where their stories should reside. …
Backlash Against Justice: The Ideological Attach On The University Of North Carolina Center For Civil Rights, Mark Dorosin
Backlash Against Justice: The Ideological Attach On The University Of North Carolina Center For Civil Rights, Mark Dorosin
Journal Publications
In September 2017, the University of North Carolina's Board of Governors (BOG) adopted a policy stating that no University center or institute could: file a complaint, motion, lawsuit or other legal claim in its own name or on behalf of any individual or entity against any individual, entity, or government or otherwise act as legal counsel to any third party; or employ or engage, directly or indirectly, any individual to serve as legal counsel or representative to any party in any complaint, motion, lawsuit, or other legal claim against any individual, entity, or government or to act as legal counsel …
The Right To Public Education And The School To Prison Pipeline, Areto A. Imoukuede
The Right To Public Education And The School To Prison Pipeline, Areto A. Imoukuede
Journal Publications
The school-to-prison. pipeline is a controversial concept and a disappointing reality. It refers to the draconian disciplinary "trend of schools directly referring students to law enforcement or creating conditions under which students are more likely to become involved in the justice system-such as suspending or expelling them." Public schools are intended to primarily be institutions for public education. It is clear that serving as a pipeline to prison is not the central purpose of the public school. The purpose of public education is to provide students an opportunity to develop their capabilities and grow as individuals. Public education is intended …
Rationed Justice, Jennifer M. Smith
Rationed Justice, Jennifer M. Smith
Journal Publications
In the United States, "equal justice under law" is at the very forefront of our American justice system. "Equal justice" is meant to guarantee equal access to the justice system. "Equal access to the judicial process is the sin qua non of a just society." Many Americans, however, do not have any access to the justice system, never mind that of equal access. "Equal justice" has not reached the nation's indigent, or even many of our moderate-income citizens.
A Civil Rights Act For The 21st Century: The Privileges And Immunities Clause And A Constitutional Guarantee To Be Free From Discriminatory Impact, Mark Dorosin
Journal Publications
As the nation reflects on the fiftieth anniversaries of the various civil rights legislation of the 1960s' and considers the challenges that remain for fully addressing our history of racial discrimination, segregation, and suppression, we must begin with a very fundamental question: What is the harm that we are seeking to address, and how effectively do our current civil rights laws work towards achieving that goal? Given our collective success in addressing some of the most egregious intentional discrimination, as well as the intransigent, and evolving nature of institutional racism, it is time for a new Civil Rights Act that …
The Color Of Pain: Blacks And The U.S. Health Care System--Can The Affordable Care Act Help To Heal A History Of Injustice?, Part Ii, Jennifer M. Smith
The Color Of Pain: Blacks And The U.S. Health Care System--Can The Affordable Care Act Help To Heal A History Of Injustice?, Part Ii, Jennifer M. Smith
Journal Publications
The state of Americans' health care has been troubling, especially before health care reform.The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is often touted as universal health care, and the initial intention was for the U.S. to have universal health care. However, with all of the compromises involved in its passage, the ACA resulted in comprehensive health insurance reform, significantly increasing the accessibility, affordability, and quality of health care for most, but not all, Americans. The ACA is a substantial step toward universal health care-a near-universal mandate-that may soon provide coverage to all Americans, and even include undocumented immigrants. Americans can find excellent …
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Everett Et Al V. Pitt County School (Everett I And Ii) And The Ominous Future Of Federal Court Desegregation Orders, Mark Dorosin
Journal Publications
During the brief zenith of school desegregation litigation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, hundreds of school districts across the nation, and particularly across the South, were found liable for intentional racial discrimination and became subject to federal court supervision of approved plans to achieve integration. The period of aggressive enforcement was short-lived however, and by the mid-1970s, and accelerating through the 1980s and 1990s, an increasingly conservative Supreme Court and presidential administrations first slowed the scope and intensity of school integration, and then actively pushed to end judicial enforcement and oversight of existing desegregation cases. This was true …
The Color Of Pain: Blacks And The U.S. Health Care System--Can The Affordable Care Act Help To Heal A History Of Injustice?, Part I, Jennifer M. Smith
The Color Of Pain: Blacks And The U.S. Health Care System--Can The Affordable Care Act Help To Heal A History Of Injustice?, Part I, Jennifer M. Smith
Journal Publications
Discrimination in its various forms has contributed to the exclusion of blacks and other people of color from the field of medicine both as health care providers and as patients in the United States. Dr. Robinson's story is but one example. Racism has significantly harmed the health care of black people in the U.S. Generally speaking, those with the poorest health and the greatest need have had the poorest access to medical care, as well as lower quality health care than their white counterparts. To understand this, we must consider the historical context of blacks in America and in America's …
The Fifth Freedom: The Constitutional Duty To Provide Public Education, Areto A. Imoukuede
The Fifth Freedom: The Constitutional Duty To Provide Public Education, Areto A. Imoukuede
Journal Publications
This Article explains why there is a fundamental duty for the government to provide public education under the U.S. Constitution. Numerous scholars and public officials have written on the need to overrule San Antonio v. Rodriguez or adopt alternative approaches to recognizing a right to public education either judicially or by way of constitutional amendment. This Article identifies a consistent and systemic reluctance by the Court to meaningfully enforce positive rights, which are the duties that the government owes to the people. In doing so, it explores the consistent recognition throughout American history that education is a fundamental duty of …
Money, Fear And Prejudice: Why The Courts Killed Terri Schiavo, Priscilla Norwood Harris
Money, Fear And Prejudice: Why The Courts Killed Terri Schiavo, Priscilla Norwood Harris
Journal Publications
On March 31, 2005, thirteen days after the court-ordered removal of her feeding tube, Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo (Terri) died from dehydration. At the time of her death, Terri did not suffer from a terminal condition; if provided with nourishment, her life expectancy was at least ten years. Since February 1990, Terri had been unconscious. Terri left no living will or written directive as to her wishes. Family members vehemently disagreed as to whether Terri, raised in the Catholic faith, would have wanted her feeding tube removed. To legally end Terri's life, Florida law required the person petitioning for her …
Save The Marriage Before (Not After) The Ceremony: The Marriage Preparation Act - Can We Have A Public Response To A Private Problem, Lundy Langston
Save The Marriage Before (Not After) The Ceremony: The Marriage Preparation Act - Can We Have A Public Response To A Private Problem, Lundy Langston
Journal Publications
Two individuals meet, engage in an intimate, not necessarily sexual, relationship and marry. The two join in a union with the promise to spend the remainder of their natural lives together. But forever is not forever. On a national level, over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce.' Perhaps marriage vows should include a statement about the inevitability of divorce. States' divorce laws vary, from faultbased, to no-fault, to a statutory period of separation. Some states recently made it easier for individuals to be granted a divorce. Reasons for making it easier to end marriages could have been related to …
Affirmative Action, A Look At South Africa And The United States: A Question Of Pigmentation Or Leveling The Playing Field, Lundy Langston
Affirmative Action, A Look At South Africa And The United States: A Question Of Pigmentation Or Leveling The Playing Field, Lundy Langston
Journal Publications
Affirmative action is one of the most divisive issues in the United States today.' Proponents of affirmative action argue that the United States has not come far enough in leveling the playing field. They argue that affirmative action programs are needed as much today-if not more-than when the balancing policies initially took effect. Opponents of affirmative action argue that race-based decision-making is undemocratic and discriminates against the majoritarian members in United States society. As we prepare to exit the twentieth century, we are confronted with the need to resolve the affirmative action dilemma. Do we eliminate affirmative-action programs altogether and …
Sweep Searches--The Rights Of The Community, And The Guarantees Of The Fourth And First Amendments: Moms Of The Chicago Public Housing Complex, Revisit Your Civil And Constitutional Rights And Save Your Babies, Lundy Langston
Journal Publications
African-American babies are an endangered species. They have the potential to live to the ripe old age of fourteen. We are singing new songs of overcoming-overcoming the loss of our babies. However, it's the same song: the lyrics are Black, and the music is, as always, White. Across the nation let us hold hands, let us gather together, let us save our babies. Will the music, the lyrics of our collective songs, save our babies? Is there a collective voice? There must be a collective voice if we are to save our babies and WE must save them if we …
Political And Social Construction Of Families Through Pedagogy In Family Law Classrooms, Lundy Langston
Political And Social Construction Of Families Through Pedagogy In Family Law Classrooms, Lundy Langston
Journal Publications
Most family law materials available today fail to reflect the diversity' of family arrangements in modem society. Traditionally, family law is taught as a rules-based area of law. Students learn the requirements of marriage and the grounds for and consequences of divorce. Currently, there are efforts to expand the codification of family law through such things as support guidelines, uniform acts, and legislation listing specific factors to be considered in custody and property distribution cases. Many of these efforts stem from the underlying assumption that there is a uniform methodology describing and defining doctrine appropriate for resolution of family related …
Force African-American Fathers To Parent Their Delinquent Sons - A Factor To Be Considered At The Dispositional Stage, Lundy Langston
Force African-American Fathers To Parent Their Delinquent Sons - A Factor To Be Considered At The Dispositional Stage, Lundy Langston
Journal Publications
What species can survive and function when a substantial segment of its young male population is harnessed by the burdens of substance abuse, unemployment, and incarceration? Empirical data suggests that these maladies have infected African-American males at a rate alarmingly disproportionate to that of other races. This trend, if it continues, suggests that America is creating a dysfunctional class. In this Article the term "dysfunctional" refers to a predicament wherein African-American males engage in violent activities.' Their conduct may be attributable to their inability to contribute to the family or smaller groups which form the foundation of the social order …