NC NAACP and Partners Announce Second Leg of Tour to Put a Face on Poverty in Southeastern NC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 21, 2012

For More Information:     Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President, 919-394-8137

           Atty. Jennifer Marsh, Legal Redress Coordinator, 919-682-4700   

Announcing the Second Leg of the Truth and Hope Tour of Poverty in North Carolina: Southeastern NC

The NC NAACP, UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, NC Justice Center, NCCU Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change and the AARP of North Carolina will announce the second leg of the Truth and Hope Tour of Poverty in NC, traveling this time to Southeastern North Carolina, at a news conference in Durham on Wednesday at 10 AM.

The news conference will take place on the 3^rd floor of the NC Institute of Minority Economic Development building at 114 W Parrish Street, Durham, NC 27701 on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 10 AM.

The Truth and Hope, Putting a Face on Poverty Tour is exposing the painful stories and faces behind the often "bloodless statistics" of poverty. On the first leg, we heard about:  

• A long-ignored crisis of electric bills that are tearing apart the delicate safety net for scores of families.
• 26 beds available for a homeless population of 1,000 in Elizabeth City
• A community in Tyrrell County who fought 16 years for a sewage system while living with unsafe drinking water and soil full of septic overflow.
• A couple who both had jobs, but still were on the brink of homelessness with the low wages, high utilities and poor housing they faced in Washington.
• A recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill who faced poverty and unemployment if she followed her dream to return to her hometown of Rocky Mount and serve her community.
• Local officials in Washington County telling the stories of joblessness and poverty rates in small towns that reach nearly 40%.

These are a just a few of the stories we heard among the hundreds of people we met with over the course of two days in January.  

On Friday March 2^nd and Saturday March 3^rd, the Tour will continue in southeastern North Carolina, a region scarred by a history of racial violence and class division that has hindered economic vitality in the region and left people, generation after generation, battling deeply entrenched poverty.

Locations will include Sampson, Pender, New Hanover, Robeson, Cumberland, Pitt and Wayne Counties.

###

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.