UNC Center for Civil Rights to Hold a National Commission on Voting Rights Fact-Finding Hearing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 26, 2014

For more information: Atty. Jamie Phillips Cole, Public Policy Coordinator, 919.682.4700

Sarah Bufkin, Media Coordinator, 404.285.3413

The NC NAACP and the Forward Together Moral Movement Join with the Lawyers' Committee and the UNC Center for Civil Rights to Hold a National Commission on Voting Rights Fact-Finding Hearing March 28 to Examine North Carolina's Voting Rights Record

Friday, March 28, 2014

9 am - 5:30 pm

OIC of Rocky Mount

402 East Virginia St., Rocky Mount, NC 27802

ROCKY MOUNT - To further understand and document instances of voter suppression and inequities in electoral administration, the North Carolina NAACP, the UNC Center for Civil Rights, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and other coalition partners will organize a National Commission on Voting Rights fact-finding hearing on Friday, March 28 in Rocky Mount, NC. Advocates for simplified, unfettered voting, community leaders, voters, scholars and NAACP members from across the state will testify about voter discrimination and election administration issues in North Carolina.

"There is no better to time to take a serious look at North Carolina's voting rights record - nine months after the Supreme Court gutted Section V of the Voting Rights Act and seven months after extremists in North Carolina passed the worst voter suppression bill we have seen since Jim Crow," said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, president of the NC NAACP and the National Legislative and Political Action Chair of the NAACP. "Here in North Carolina, we are the canaries in the coal mine of a nationwide rollback of voting rights. This voter suppression law hurts African Americans and all people of color. It makes it more difficult for the elderly, the disabled, poor white people, young people and working women to vote. This week's hearing will make a powerful case for restoring full voting rights and protections in North Carolina." 

The Advancement Project, which has successfully represented the NAACP and other community groups in Pennsylvania to strike down an unconstitutional voter ID law similar to the one extremists pushed through the legislature here last year, will participate. The ACLU of North Carolina, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Blueprint North Carolina and Democracy North Carolina are also co-organizers. Attorney Kim Keenan, the general counsel for the National NAACP, was instrumental in organizing this partnership between the NC NAACP and the Lawyers' Committee.

The hearing is slated to run from 9 am to 5:30 pm on Friday, March 28 at the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) at 402 East Virginia St., Rocky Mount, NC. At 9 am, Dr. Barber will open the hearing by officially welcoming the former legislators and legal experts from North Carolina and around the country who will serve as commissioners. Barbara Arnwine, the president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee and a renowned civil rights advocate, will travel to Rocky Mount to act as a commissioner on Friday.

This week's hearing is the 10th held as a part of the National Commission on Voting Rights. The Lawyers' Committee, which is coordinating the national hearings, plans to use the testimony submitted both orally and in writing to produce two reports, one on the state of voter discrimination in the U.S. and a second on electoral administration. 

The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act conducted similar hearings around the country in 2005, and the Commission's final report and record were requested by Congressional leaders to inform the debate on the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Ultimately, Congress found the Commission's record of voter discrimination convincing, and the bill to reauthorize passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

"The evidence that the National Commission compiled nine years ago convinced 490 members of Congress that the Voting Rights Act was a necessary guard against voter suppression at the state and local levels," Dr. Barber said. "Yet five people on the Supreme Court seem to think that racial discrimination in our electoral processes is a relic and that our people no longer need to worry about having our hard-won voting rights snatched from us. We will never go back. That is why this hearing is so crucial: to give voice to all those people here in this state who have had their right to vote undermined and who have not been fairly and justly represented by their government."

WHO:             The NC NAACP and the Forward Together Moral Movement, 

                        the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, UNC Center for Civil 

                        Rights, Advancement Project, ACLU of North Carolina, Southern Coalition 

                        for Social Justice, Blueprint North Carolina and Democracy NC

WHAT:           National Commission on Voting Rights fact-finding hearing

WHEN:           Friday, March 28 from 9 am to 5:30 pm

WHERE:        OIC of Rocky Mount                       

                        402 East Virginia St., Rocky Mount, NC 27802

###