Two members of NC HEAT open up the July 20 mass demonstration!

After taking part in last week’s incredible march and demonstration organized by the NAACP, we’re hitting the ground this week, working on our upcoming media showcase and making plans for this coming school year!

We’ve divided up into production teams and are working on making two short documentaries on different aspects of the struggle in Wake County to resist the attempts to re-segregate our schools. From interviewing different experts and community leaders to filming at the demonstration on July 20, we’ve been getting lots of footage are almost ready to start editing and getting the final products together! We’ll be hosting a community event to show our films as well as an NC HEAT orientation meeting for high school students interested in getting active on August 17 at 6:30pm at the Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh. Keep checking back here for more updates and details about that event as we get closer!

This week, Mark Dorosin, senior attorney from the UNC Center for Civil Rights, joined us and talked about the history of desegregation, how the re-segregation of Charlotte Mecklenberg schools relates to the current struggle in Wake County, and gave us a picture of what the diversity program did and how that could change if the Re-segregationist Five’s plans go forward. Historian and author Tim Tyson was also with us and did a workshop on the history of the Civil Rights movement and civil disobedience.

We’ve been talking a lot about how to continue to build the struggle to defend our schools during this upcoming school year. Some of the ideas that we’re working with are  starting HEAT chapters at our schools, organizing different educational events and organizing trainings throughout the year, as well as a number of other ideas about campaigns and how to get more students active that we’ll keep folks updated on as things become more concrete.

There are two weeks left in the Organizing Institute and we’re getting really excited to get things going this school hear! Forward ever, backwards never!