The NAACP-sponsored civil rights rally Historic Thousands on Jones Street, or HKONJ, celebrated its 5th anniversary on Saturday. Thousands came together to march for immigration rights, economic justice, worker rights, and to speak out against the educational policies that are threatening to re-segregate North Carolina schools.

The decision to end Busing-for-Diversity in North Carolina’s largest school district made national headlines last year and was recently satirized by Steven Colbert on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. You only have to look at how the state’s second largest school district, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, to understand that this is not a laughing matter! With North Carolina in a budget crisis and education money on the chopping block, Charlotte-Mecklenburg closed the doors on nearly a dozen mostly non-white schools AFTER deciding to end it’s busing policy. NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous joined Rev. William Barber, NC NAACP president to speak out against the direction the district and state is heading.

“We ‘re still fighting old Jim Crow,” he said. NC Heat Co-Chair Monserrat Alvarez was a featured speaker at the rally and was interviewed by NBC-17.

 

Don’t let North Carolina push nonwhite students to the back of the bus! Join us for a Student and Parent Panel with the Anthony Tata at a To Be Determined location on March 3rd 6:30-8:30 p.m. Food, childcare, and Spanish Interpretation will be provided.