Race

I just got this by email:

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Rep. Melvin L. Watt (D-N.C.), Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), issued the following statement about passage of the Voting Rights Act today on the House floor by a vote of 390 to 33:

"I applaud members of the United States House for voting to reauthorize the landmark Voting Rights Act, which extends for 25 years expiring provisions of the bill. The VRA is the most important civil rights statute ever enacted and strengthens the very foundation of our democracy.

"The bicameral, bipartisan bill, also known as the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006, restores the Voting Rights Act to its original intent to secure and protect the rights of minority citizens to participate fully at the ballot box.

I had a small role in an event where Richard Sander (along with some other leading legal empiricists) presented a paper for the North Carolina Law Review's 2005 Symposium this last October, Empirical Studies of the Legal Profession. The finished written work of the Symposium is coming out soon, and Sander is already causing controversy for his theories. Sander gathers data that shows that Blacks are hired at large law firms at a higher rate than their class ranking and other credentials would predict and that Blacks are less happy and less likely to succeed once they are hired. Sander then theorizes that the paradox of aggressive hiring and unhappy Blacks once they are working at the firm is a result of mismatch. Not being published yet, I am not a liberty to discuss more details on his current thesis; however, he published a similar theory on law school admission and Black performance where he stated:

A couple of months ago, I blogged about the preliminary draft report of the Wilmington Race Riot Commission. The Commission was formed to examine the events of 1898, when the Wilmington City government and the majority of the Black community were attacked by a mob of White Democrats upset with the state of affairs in the city. The Commission concluded that the "riot" was really a planned overthrow of the local government--the only successful overthrow of a local government in the history of the United States. The overthrow had many long lasting negative effects on the Black community in the Southeastern part of the state.

The NC Conservation Network is posting a series on poverty and the environment:

Inspired by a recent seven week series on Grist online magazine on poverty and the environment, we will launch a weeklong discussion of the topic “Poverty and the Environment in NC” on our blog starting Monday April 24. Here’s a preview of what’s to come...

Our own Grady McCallie will start things off with an analysis of the link between poverty and environmental issues in North Carolina. Then three grassroots activists, Kathy Knight, Frank Warren, and Hope Taylor-Guevara, will be adding their thoughts.

I was just reading this report about the progress North Carolina has made toward representational racial equality. (It's a slow day at work.) The report is pretty rosy—which is good if true—but it's real, real short on causes. That is, it offers a lot of data, but doesn't do much looking into why the data trends the way it does. (I was doing some skimming; please correct me if I missed something.)

The report is by the American Enterprise Institute. I have a hard time keeping my think tanks straight, and I don't ever assume that their names say much about their missions. So looking up AEI I find that they're "an extremely influential, pro-business right-wing think tank" that "promotes the advancement of free enterprise capitalism" and "is the center base for many neo-conservatives."

Congratulations go out to John Hope Franklin, Professor Emeritus of History at Duke. His autobiography "Mirror on America" has been named to the New York Times List of 100 Most Notable Books (free subscription required). The New York Times review of the book is here (free subscription may be required).

An important event in North Carolina's history was the Wilmington race riots of 1898, which resulted in the only successful overthrow of a local government in the history of the United States. The riot occurred on November 10, 1898, an election day. The City was being run by a Black and Republican government during reconstruction. On the election day, the Republicans were defeated in part by a ballot box stuffing campaign. After the vote, some Whites attempted to gain control of the city immediately. When the sitting government refused, riots ensued.

The first headline in New York regarding the event was entitled "Whites Kill Negroes and Seize City of Wilmington" (photo included below). The newest headline in New York addresses not just the event but also the findings of the Wilmington Race Commission, a commission created by the NC legislature to examine the events. The New York Times posted a story entitled "North Carolina City Confronts Its Past in Report on White Vigilantes" today here.

This billboard is being set to be launched in Raleigh soon.

The "terrorists" are set against the background of the winding mountain road with Arab script above their heads. The group claims to have a gripe against the security of North Carolina driver's licenses; however, as Lance has posted earlier, none of the 9/11 terrorists had North Carolina driver's licenses, despite claims by North Carolina representatives that they did.