Center for Civil Rights Past Conferences
Land Rich Conference
Held at UNC's William B. Friday Center, the Second Annual Land Rich Conference focused on the theme "Strategies and Opportunities for Helping Low Wealth Land Owners to Optimize the Value of their Real Estate Assets." More than 150 individuals from 12 states participated in the two-day conference, including landowners, representatives from nonprofit organizations, resources, private investors, developers, realtors, attorneys, students, and government officials. The Land Rich conference was co-convened with Asset Builders and University of Wisconsin Law School and sponsored in part by the Ford Foundation, Kilpatrick Stockton, and the North Carolina Community Development Initiative. For conference presentations, visit http://www.landrich.org/presentations.html.
High Poverty Schooling in America: Lessons in Second-Class Citizenship
On October 13, 2006, the UNC Center for Civil Rights hosted its fifth annual conference, co-sponsored with the North Carolina Law Review and the UNC School of Education. The conference brought together over 450 people to examine the best strategies to improve academic achievement, teacher quality and parental satisfaction in high poverty schools. The conference keynote was delivered by Gloria Ladson-Billings, past president of the American Educational Researchers Association and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Senator John Edwards, director of the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity delivered the luncheon address. Conference panelists included some of the nation's top experts on the issues of race, poverty and public education.
Conference Participant Powerpoint Presentations
Who Draws the Lines?: The Consequences of Redistricting Reform for Minority Voters
On February 3, 2006, the UNC Center for Civil Rights hosted its fourth annual conference. The conference brought together over 175 people to explore the issues associated with redistricting reform. The conference included a keynote speech delivered by Donna Brazile, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute and former campaign manager to the Gore-Lieberman campaign. Sam Hirsch, attorney at Jenner & Block, whose firm currently represents plaintiffs in the Texas redistricting,
Jackson v. Perry, delivered the luncheon address. Other speakers included Professor Nathaniel Persily from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Professor Morgan Kousser from the California Institute of Technology, Debo Adegbile from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Steven Carbo from Demos, Professor Spencer Overton from the George Washington University School of Law and Professor Alex Willingham from Williams College.
Download a copy of the post-conference report, which includes panel summaries and presentations.
School Resegregation in North Carolina
On May 23, 2005, the UNC Center for Civil Rights and the Duke Sanford Institute of Public Policy hosted the state's education leaders at a conference to explore the extent to which the public schools are resegregating and whether North Carolina should support public policies to discourage racial isolation. The day's activities included presentations of descriptive information on student and faculty trends; presentations from school districts that are pursuing different student assignment strategies; and breakout groups that allowed participants to work on sets of related issues.
Invisible Fences: Municipal Underbounding and Minority Exclusion
On November 12, 2004, the UNC Center for Civil Rights explored a widespread by underrecognized problem: the historic exclusion of African American, Latino and other minority communities from the municipal boundaries of southern towns. Residents of these excluded neighborhoods typically do not receive city water, sewer, paved roads, streetlights and/or other municipal services. The conference brought together over 170 people including legal scholars, community advocates, government officials, social scientists and students to discuss numerous issues raised by municipal underbounding.
Mending the Health Care Divide: Eliminating Disparities in Access for Minority and Low Income Communities
Despite decades of brilliant medical achievements, American health care continues to reflect many of the deeper ambiguities and challenges that face American society. Technological and pharmacological breakthroughs arrest our attention and command our admiration. Yet the United States, which spends more on health care per capita than any other country, fails to provide adequate access to health services for millions of its residents. Many of those excluded are non-white, poor or barely making ends meet.
This conference, held on November 1, 2003, examined the forces that create and maintain the patterns of unequal or inadequate health care access for poor and minority people in North Carolina and throughout the nation. Leading public health researchers, medical scholars and doctors came together to talk across disciplinary boundaries with dedicated legal and policy professionals. The conference addressed some of the toughest public health questions that are relevant both to North Carolina and the nation.
The Resegregation of Southern Schools? A Crucial Moment in the History (and the Future) of Public Schooling in America
Since the 1970's, no region of the United States has experienced more widespread public school integration than the American South. Yet today, even as the nation becomes ever more racially and ethnically diverse, it seems realistic to predict that, within the coming decade, most Southern schools may rapidly resegregate by race and by socioeconomic class.
This conference, held on August 30, 2002, brought together a remarkable group of thinkers and activists to participate in a discussion of educational trends, policy implications and possible agendas for public action. More than 400 individuals, consisting of scholars, civil rights advocates, policymakers, lawyers and school administrators, attended the conference.