Blog
Defending Worker Organizing
For five years, Emancipate NC has held down defense of protesters, activists, and organizers in North Carolina. Our newest attorney, Dillon Sharpe, heads to court in Wake County next week, defending an Amazon worker and an organizer both charged with trespassing...
The Emancipated CLE 2025 was a success!
Thanks to everyone who came! Come again next year!
DCo Thrives
Durham County introduces DCo Thrives, a program to provide cash assistance to low-income families in Durham County. DCo Thrives will provide no-strings-attached payments to 125 randomly selected individuals with a child under the age of 18 living with them on a full-...
Radio Free NC
In a world that is always changing at an accelerating pace yet sticking to age-old structures and systems, the Radio Free NC Pod seeks to facilitate casual conscious conversation around a variety of cultural topics to bring folks together and help sow new seeds in the...
Unity Town Hall
The Black citizens of Wilmington know the storm that is coming, and they are gearing up. Later this month, Dawn Blagrove will return to Wilmington to train people on the origin and function of the Electoral College, the 14th Amendment, Trump’s executive...
Support on Wheels
Last November, Kerwin Pittman drove hours to Peachland, North Carolina — a town in Anson County — to buy a bus. On the drive back to Raleigh, he said, he was just hoping it wouldn’t break down. After all, he had a big dream for it. Three months later, he has...
We Protect Democracy
As you know, sore loser candidate Jefferson Griffin is demanding that the court do the unthinkable: throw away the lawful votes of 60,000 North Carolinians and overturn his loss in the 2024 state Supreme Court election. Griffin’s scheme is dangerous, disingenuous, and...
Last chance to register for our CLE
Don’t forget to register for our CLE on February 7, all day in Durham. And bring your friends! Register here→
Get Trained on the Family Police
Don’t be fooled by the name–the “child welfare system” is another system with roots in white supremacy and slavery. Emancipate NC’s newest project is the Carolina Parent Defenders. We will be the first organization dedicated to representing parents who have been...
Celebrating Clemency
Phillip Vance Smith, II is an incarcerated man serving Life Without Parole in North Carolina’s state prisons. He is represented by Elizabeth Simpson at Emancipate NC. He wrote this reflection on Governor Cooper’s clemency actions. When former Governor Roy Cooper...
Racist Election Theft Today
The racism and hatred that fueled the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 remains powerful in the State of North Carolina. Today, we see an example of white rage in the Republican judicial candidate, Jefferson Griffin, who lost his election for the state Supreme Court....
Emancipate Goes to Wilmington
Dawn Blagrove traveled to Wilmington, NC this week to join a Town Hall for Black citizens to voice their concerns in the current political moment and turn hope into action. The forum was hosted by the NAACP of New Hanover County, the National Black Leadership Caucus,...
Year End Round-Up
Two Emancipate NC clients, represented by Ian Mance, with the investigation assistance of Margaux Lander, had their Life Without Parole sentences commuted by Governor Roy Cooper. Brian Fuller and Dwight Jordan are now eligible to apply for parole. Look for more...
Terminally Ill People Languish in NC Prisons
Emancipate NC's client, Phillip Vance Smith, II, is an incarcerated journalist. He wrote an article about North Carolina's new compassionate release law that impacts people incarcerated in state prisons. “One doctor said I got two-to-four years left to live,”...
Do Police Belong in Schools?
According to Indy Week, 80 schools in Wake County, including some elementary schools, all middle schools, and nearly every high school, are employing School Resource Officers (SROs). Emancipate NC’s Elizabeth Simpson expresses concern about the punitive...