NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD for Sunday, March 21, 2021
305th Weekly Edition
This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this weekly platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads.
Colorado: Mondays, 7:00 PM Mountain
Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern
North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern
Missouri: Wednesday Evenings
Kansas: Monday Evenings
Something you want to highlight? kosmail or email at randalltdkos at gmail. Twitter: @randallt
Click here for Covid-19 data from Worldometer Real Time World Statistics.
USA
NC |
Total
Cases |
New
Cases |
Total
Deaths |
New
Deaths |
Total
Recovered |
Active
Cases |
3/21/2021 1:00PM
895,263 |
|
11,820 |
|
852,732 |
30,711 |
Please jump the fold, The floor is yours…
Series Introduction-The battle for Alamance
Part one: A troubled history of racism, violence and repression
“They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it.”
– James Baldwin, “The Fire Next Time”
On a cold and drizzly February night in 1870 a mob of Klansmen came for Wyatt Outlaw, the first Black town commissioner of Graham.
Wearing robes and hoods, and armed with torches, swords and pistols, some 20 men broke down the door of his home on Main Street. They demanded Outlaw show himself, threatening to burn down the house. They stomped on the head and chest of his 73-year-old mother, who lived with him and his two young sons.
As his boys screamed in terror, the men bludgeoned their father, marching and dragging him half-naked to the nearby Alamance County Courthouse Square. There they hung him from a tall elm tree facing the courthouse and slashed open his mouth as at least 60 men watched.
When the sun came up on Sunday morning, Outlaw’s body still hung outside the courthouse. Even his friends and family were frightened to cut him down. The mob had pinned a warning message to his corpse.
“Beware ye guilty,” it read. “Both Black and white.” Outlaw’s crime? Daring to challenge white supremacy.
If you’ve already read today’s Policy Watch special report on the 1870 lynching of Wyatt Outlaw and its connection to the modern problems in Alamance County, you may want to read more.
Today’s piece is the first in a Policy Watch series on Alamance County that will include pieces on local government, the sheriff’s department, public schools and environmental justice.
But our initial story on Wyatt Outlaw and the history and continuation of white supremacy in the state would not have been possible without the scholars and activists who spoke to us for the piece and the work they’ve already done. All of it is worth your time.
If you were intrigued by what Duke University’s Dr. William Darity had to say about systemic inequality and the racial terror campaigns designed to preserve it, you should read From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century, Darity’s recent book with co-author A. Kirsten Mullen.
The Rev. Ervin Milton talked with us about modern Alamance County and the connections to story of Wyatt Outlaw. He is a regular contributor at the Burlington Times-News. His columns, including this week’s on the meaning of Lent, can be found here.
Dr. Keisha Bentley-Edwards, a developmental psychologist and assistant professor of Medicine at Duke, helped us with a closer look at the psychological aspect of white supremacist thinking and the cycle of violence it has perpetuated throughout our history. Her paper, How Does it Feel to be a Problem? The Missing Kerner Commission Report, is essential reading.
For a deep dive into the life, death and legacy of Wyatt Outlaw, you need to read Dr. Carole Troxler’s “To look more closely at the man”: Wyatt Outlaw, a Nexus of National, Local, and Personal History. She is a historian and professor emerita at Elon University whose work on the Outlaw story is widely considered definitive.
NC PROUD BOY RAN COMMUNICATIONS FOR CAPITOL ATTACKERS: The indictment says that after Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio was arrested in Washington on Jan. 4, on charges stemming from an earlier rally, Donohoe expressed concern that encrypted communications that involved Tarrio would be compromised. Prosecutors say Donohoe created a new channel on the encrypted messaging application and took steps to destroy or “nuke” the earlier one.
The evening of Jan. 4, prosecutors say, Donohoe then posted on the new channel and other messaging boards that he had been told that planning needed to stop. “Everything is compromised and we can be looking at Gang charges,” he wrote, according to the indictment. “This comes from the top.” By the next day, on the eve of the protest, prosecutors say the Proud Boys had created a new messaging channel called “Boots on the Ground” that they could use in Washington. Eventually more than 60 members did communicate that way, including Donohoe.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article250062049.html
RALEIGH, N.C. — About 100 people gathered in downtown Raleigh on Saturday afternoon for a rally that supported police and protested COVID-19 rules in North Carolina.
Among the group were people representing the Proud Boys and Reopen NC. Speakers voiced opposition toward the COVID-19 vaccine and COVID-19 policies. Those who talked expressed a general pro-law enforcement stance. Several speakers addressed the crowd in a parking lot through a microphone amid counter protests from a nearby sidewalk along Blount Street. A line of Raleigh police officers separated the groups.
Counter protesters from the group NC Born were also there. There was much shouting and yelling from both sides, but there were no physical incidents. Counter protesters used sirens and megaphones in effort to drown out the other side.
Several men could be seen wearing clothing with the Proud Boys logo. Earlier this week, four men described as leaders of the Proud Boys were charged in the U.S. Capitol riots.
Several people listening to the speeches carried large American flags. Others had flags supporting former U.S. President Donald Trump.
JAY CHAUDHURI RE-INTRODUCES NC HATE CRIME BILL AFTER ATLANTA SHOOTINGS: "If we wish to pursue a perfect union in this state, then we must confront and take on the often dark and ugly side of our democracy," said Chaudhuri, who has sponsored each of the last two bills and is behind this one as well. "Responding to hate crimes must be a priority because they impact all of us," agreed Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, D-Mecklenburg. "Hate crimes not only have an impact on one victim, but they also terrorize and isolate a victim’s whole community, and that weakens public safety for all of us."
The bill would increase the punishment for any crime if it's determined a person was targeted because of his or her "race, ethnicity, color, religion, nationality, country of origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, disability, or sexual orientation." It also would create a statewide database of such crimes – reporting hate crimes by law enforcement agencies is currently voluntary, but it would become mandatory – and provide more training for law enforcement officers and district attorneys to respond to and prosecute cases.
https://www.wral.com/in-wake-of-atlanta-shootings-nc-lawmakers-again-pursue-hate-crime-bill/19582121/
3-3-21 As Republican Madison Cawthorn accumulates more negative press, the prospect of running to unseat the 25-year-old congressman grows more appealing for Democrats.
Most recently, Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara announced she’d run to represent North Carolina’s 11th congressional district, and within 24 hours, she raised $100,000. But quick conversations with numerous prospective candidates reveals she likely won’t be alone.
Cawthorn was elected to the seat after Mark Meadows — who eventually became President Donald Trump’s chief of staff — announced he’d not run for another term mere hours before the filing period closed. While a whole slew of Republican candidates turned out, Cawthorn, a relatively unknown underdog emerged to win, first in two Republican primaries, then in the General Election against Democrat Moe Davis.
But since Cawthorn took office, he’s been hit with a wave of bad press both locally and nationally, leaving an opening for a Democrat, or maybe even a Republican primary challenge, to defeat him.
Thanks for reading and contributing, be safe out there!