No. 1 issue for HK on J rally Saturday: School re-segregation

Feb. 26, 2010

11:54 a.m.

The HK on J march and rally, snowed out two weeks ago, starts at 9:30 tomorrow (Saturday) morning in front of Shaw University. Marchers head for the General Assembly on Jones Street (the "J" in "HK (Historic Thousands) on J"), where a rally is scheduled to begin at 11. The NAACP's statement is copied below the fold. Note the number-one issue: "the re-segregation of public schools."

For more information, visit www.hkonj.com or www.naacpnc.org.

from the organizers:

NORTH CAROLINA NAACP TO LEAD THOUSANDS IN RALEIGH TO DEMAND JOBS, FOCUS ON EDUCATION, FIGHT RESEGREGATION
NATIONAL NAACP PRESIDENT BEN JEALOUS TO ADDRESS JOBS CRISIS, FAILING SCHOOLS VIA SPECIAL MESSAGE
Raleigh, NC –Thousands are expected to meet at Shaw University on Saturday, February 27 and march to the State Legislature on Jones Street to protest the re-segregation of public schools, call for education instead of imprisonment, and demand good jobs and schools. The 4th Annual HKonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) March and Assembly has adopted the slogan of the 50th Anniversary of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in honor of spirit of the SNCC movement an in light of a need for movement today. Only 50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ella Baker helped Black and White students form SNCC, there is today a similar explosion among our young people of long-simmering frustrations.
'This is one of the most exciting movements I've seen across the country,” said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. 'The agenda-based coalition, led by the NAACP State Conference, should be replicated across the country. We cannot in good moral conscience separate the struggle for diverse and superior education from the struggle for jobs and economic solutions.”
'On one hand, we must expose that the ultra right wing race baiting re-segregation strategy is a cynical attempt to play upon people's vulnerability to division as they struggle for jobs,” said North Carolina NAACP State Conference President Rev. William J. Barber II. 'On the other hand, we must demand recognition that the economic crisis in the African American and poor communities existed before recent crisis was acknowledge by the larger society and must be addressed.”
WHO: North Carolina civil rights and civic leaders, Special Audio Message from NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous
WHEN: Saturday, February 27, 2010, 9:30am – 12 noon
9:30am Gather Shaw University, Estey Hall March to
11:00am Rally at 16 W. Jones St (downtown Raleigh)