Legal Documents and Reports
Resegregation of Southern Schools
The UNC Center for Civil Rights is engaged in efforts to combat public school resegregation in the South. This issue was the topic of the Center's first annual conference in August 2002 and the focus of a statewide convening in May 2005. In addition to the numerous papers written on this topic, the Center, with the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, facilitated the production of a book of 15 essays drawn from the conference, entitled
School Resegregation: Must the South Turn Back? released in September 2005. Visit
www.uncpress.unc.edu for more information on the book or to order copies. During the fall of 2004, the Center prepared a report,
The Socioeconomic Composition of the Public Schools: A Crucial Consideration in Student Assignment Policy, which is presently being shared with numerous public school advocates.
Leandro v. State of North Carolina: The N.C. Supreme Court Decisions That Promise Every Student a Constitutional Right to a Sound Basic Education
Read a description of the
Leandro decisions and find up-to-date school finance information for each of North Carolina's 115 local school districts in
"What Stands Between Students and a Sound Basic Education?," March 2007.
- Second Amended Complaint, September 2005
- Amici Curiae Supplemental Memorandum of Law, September 2005
- Order Regarding Motion to Intervene by CMS Students, August 2005
- First Amended Intervening Complaint, July 2005
- Charlotte Students' Reply to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education's Opposition to Intervention, July 2005
- Motion to Intervene, February 2005
- Plaintiff-Intervenors' Memorandum of Law, February 2005
- Intervening Complaint, February 2005
- Amici Curiae Memorandum of Law, December 2004
- Amici Curiae Memorandum of Law, October 2004
- Amici Curiae Brief, June 2003
- Amici Curiae Memorandum of Law, January 2002
- Amici Curiae Memorandum of Law, September 2001
- Read the North Carolina Supreme Court's July 2004 Leandro decision
- Amici Curiae Brief, June 2006
- Amici Curiae Brief, September 1996
- Motion to Show Cause for Court Approval, February 2005
- Amici Curiae Brief, June 2003
- Plaintiff-Intervenors Opposition to Petitioning Intervenors Motion, February 2005
- Report from the Court on the High School Problem, May 2005
- Response to Plaintiff-Intervenors Opposition to Motion, March 2005
- Supplement to Plaintiff-Intervenors Motion to Develop Statewide Plan, October 2004
- Supreme Court Decision, July 1997
Community Development
- Comment to USDA Regarding Heirs Property
- Land Loss Brochure(co-authored with the Land Loss Prevention Project)
- Workshops for Excluded Communities
Held in partnership with the Southen Moore Alliance for Excluded Communities -Jackson Hamlet Community Association, Midway Community Association, Waynor Road in Action, and Voices for Justice - and the Legal Aid of North Carolina's Clients Counsel, the grassroots trainings seek to educate and empower communities to use activism to address the effects of municipal underbounding in their communities. For photos and materials from the workshops, visit http://www.voicesforjusticenc.org.
- Invisible Fences: Municipal Underbounding in Moore County, NC
This report documents five minority communities' experience with a modern-day form of racial segregation known as municipal underbounding, whereby predominantly minority communities are kept separate from their larger, predominantly white municipal counterparts. Such exclusion often results in the denial of basic services such as water, sewer, and police, which are enjoyed by the bordering towns. Residents of excluded communities are also denied the right to vote in municipal elections even though they are subject to a town's extra-territorial regulatory powers. The report includes an appendix documenting the success of the communities' activism to bring improved public infrastructure to their communities.
Voting Rights
- Amendment to A Report of RenewtheVRA.org: Voting Rights in North Carolina, 1982-2006
- A Report of RenewtheVRA.org: Voting Rights in North Carolina, 1982-2006
- Response of Anita Earls, Questions from Senate Judiciary Committee Members on "The Continuing Need for Section 5 Pre-Clearance"
- Order, NAACP v. City of Thomasville
- Plaintiffs' Memorandum in Response to Defendant's Request that Court Determine Election Schedule, NAACP v. City of Thomasville
- Testimony by Anita Earls to the Senate Judiciary Committee, May 16, 2006
- A Report of RenewtheVRA.org: Voting Rights in Virginia, 1982-2006
- Amicus Curiae Brief, Pender County v. Bartlett
- Amicus Curiae Brief filed in the United States Supreme Court in the Texas redistricting case, Jackson v. Perry
- Testimony by Anita Earls to the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee
- Final Report, 2004 Election Protection North Carolina
- Plaintiffs' Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, NAACP v. City of Thomasville
- Amicus Curiae Brief, James v. Bartlett
- Amici Curiae Brief, Locke v. Farrakhan
- New York Times article on Locke v. Farrakhan
- Testimony by Anita Earls to the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act
- "Equal Effects," an article written by Anita Earls and published in Legal Affairs
Other Documents and Reports
In February 2003, the UNC School of Law filed an amicus curiae brief in the University of Michigan School of Law affirmative action case, Grutter v. Bollinger, making the argument that North Carolina's flagship public law school must be allowed to use its best judgment in selecting a diverse group of future leaders for the state. The brief pointed out that the validity of the state's legal and governmental systems depends upon this leadership development--a line of reasoning that was central to the Supreme Court's opinion.