Blog
Gifts with Purpose
Give a gift that makes a difference this holiday season! Emancipate NC offers meaningful merch that supports the fight for justice and equality. Hats, tees, sweatshirts, tanks, and notebooks -- each item not only makes a unique gift but also helps fund our mission to...
Poetic Justice 2024
In September, Emancipate NC hosted our seventh annual Poetic Justice event, welcoming a variety of poets to the Global Breath space. Church Da Poet read a poem written by an incarcerated Emancipate NC client, Phillip Vance Smith, II. Mesinjah sang a song about ending...
Welcome to the 2025 Justice League
This Fall, Emancipate NC welcomed 31 new Justice League members from across the State of North Carolina. Please join us in congratulating our largest cohort yet! Nyesha Adkins, a mother of five, is a born native of Rocky Mount, NC. She is passionate about helping the...
Tracking Racial Profiling By Police
Catch Emancipate NC’s Ian Mance on the North Carolina Advocates for Justice podcast. Twenty-five years ago, North Carolina was the first state to create a database of traffic stops to track possible racial profiling. Today, that database has 36 million traffic stops....
Media Roundup: Post-Helene Prison Crowding
After a coalition press conference demanding prison releases due to overcrowding caused by Hurricane Helene, Emancipate NC joined Disability Rights NC, the ACLU of North Carolina, and six other human rights advocacy groups in a call for action. Emancipate NC was...
Raleigh CARES!
In early 2023, Emancipate NC launched the Raleigh HEART Coalition, a diverse group of stakeholders all dedicated to bringing unarmed, compassionate, alternative crisis response to the City of Raleigh. This effort was modeled after the successful HEART program in...
Emancipate NC Wins $100,000 Settlement From New Bern Police
City pays $100,000 to 10-year-old autistic child and his mother to resolve lawsuit The City of New Bern has made significant revisions to its policies governing involuntary commitments (IVCs) and agreed to pay $100,000 to a 10-year-old child and his mother who were...
We Are Who We Have Been Waiting For
Dear Friends: We are truly in our feelings at Emancipate NC. The worst scenario has come to pass. The majority of our countrymen chose to abandon democracy and embrace hate. We cannot be afraid to say the truth aloud. Those who want to see us disappear are not...
Toia Potts Continues Her Fight for the Rights of All Parents
Over the summer Toia Potts testified to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for North Carolina about her unjust experiences in the child welfare system. Yesterday, one commissioner, Gregory Wallace, spoke up about her case to discount her, stating that the termination...
Dawn Teaches Teens to Know Their Electoral Rights
Throughout this election season, Dawn Blagrove has toured North Carolina to train residents on their rights in the electoral system. Last week, Dawn spoke to a group of teens and parents at Jack and Jill of America Capital City Chapter. The stakes for this election...
Accountability for Demoted Officer D.C. Twiddy
What does it take for a city to hold its own accountable? On Friday, Oct 25, Emancipate NC held a press conference in response to the demotion of RPD Officer Twiddy who had a long and problematic track record with the Black community. Because of NC laws denying...
Emancipate NC Introduces: Carolina Parent Defenders
Over the past three years, Emancipate NC has become a statewide leader in advocacy around the family policing system and Child Protective Services (CPS). In 2022, Elizabeth Simpson and J Hallen authored a report urging county-level reforms to the Durham Department of...
Emancipate NC Responds to Hurricane Helene
About a month after Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina, the region remains in acute distress. People in prison were also impacted; four North Carolina prisons are located in hard-hit areas, including Western Correctional for Women, Avery Mitchell...
We Got Free in the Park!
It was a beautiful day in Durham when we celebrated community self-determination and freedom with our friends at Operation Stop CPS a few weeks ago. Check out the photos!
Donate! Paper for the People Campaign
Emancipate NC & Durham Beyond Policing are teaming up to support people serving pretrial time in the Durham County Jail with the Paper for the People campaign. We have a goal to raise $25k by December 15th, 2024. In the spirit of the winter holidays, the donations...