North Carolina Voters Reject Resegregation; African American Ministers Applaud Commitment to Diversity
Voters in Wake County, North Carolina decisively defeated four conservative School Board candidates responsible for scrapping the district’s lauded
diversity policies. The outgoing Board had reversed efforts to reduce the concentration of poverty throughout the school system with busing and magnet
school programs – actions which sparked mass protests and a federal civil rights complaint from the NAACP.
Minister Leslie Watson Malachi, director of African American Ministers Leadership Council, a program of People For the American Way Foundation, issued
the following statement:
“Wake County used the power of the vote to send a strong message: diversity and quality education for all go hand-in-hand. Dividing schools divides
communities and has no place in the 21st century. The African American Ministers Leadership Council stands with citizens and congregations
everywhere to support inclusion for all in our schools. We must continue to spread awareness and take action against efforts to deny any child the
quality of education they deserve.”
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