Blog
Coalition Calls For End of Death Penalty
Photograph by Brandon Smith On August 19, the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NCCADP) held a week of activity to commemorate the 16th anniversary since the last state-sponsored execution in North Carolina. Emancipate NC is a member of...
Updates From The Unlock Our Vote Campaign
Team Emancipate is part of a coalition of people and organizations working to register formerly-incarcerated people to vote. A recent court decision restored the franchise to people with felony convictions who are serving probation, parole, or post-release...
Emancipate NC Travels to Vera Institute Conference
For three years, Emancipate NC has partnered with the NAACP of Wilson County and the Community Alliance for Public Education (CAPE) on a project to reduce child trauma by reducing pretrial incarceration of caregivers in Wilson County, NC. This project is supported by...
Solidarity With Akron, Ohio
Last week, Dawn Blagrove traveled to Akron, Ohio for a Week of Action as part of Emancipate NC’s membership in the Black Freedom Collective, a project of Community Change. The Week of Action honored the memory of Jayland Walker, who was murdered by police during a...
Emancipate NC Supports Enfield After Confederate Monument Removal
On August 21, 2022, the mayor of Enfield, NC, Mondale Robinson, took to Facebook Live to capture the bulldozing of a Confederate monument. In an interview with WUNC, he stated: "You know, I think this monument symbolized everything that was slavery in this...
The Launch of Unlock Our Vote
By Kerwin Pittman Effective on July 27th, 2022, North Carolina citizens (Over 56,000 People) on state or federal probation, parole, or post-release supervision for felony convictions can IMMEDIATELY begin to REGISTER and VOTE in NC elections, making this the largest...
Emancipate Goes to the NC Court of Appeals
Last week, Strategic Director Elizabeth Simpson argued in the North Carolina Court of Appeals in an appeal of a termination of parental rights case arising in Durham County. Emancipate NC is informed by the Office of the Parent Defender that this was the third oral...
Free James Richardson!
By Dedan Waciuri Last month, Emancipate NC joined with family and community to call upon Pitt County District Attorney Faris Dixon to release James Richardson, a Black man wrongfully convicted of murder in 2011. Mr. Richardson was a promising international basketball...
Emancipate NC Supports Gaston Community in Struggle & Grief
Last month, law enforcement in Gaston County took the life of beloved community member Jason Lipscomb, only days before his birthday. Our Justice League Fellow, Shaun Bates, is a member of the Gaston County community. Kerwin Pittman and Dedan Waciuri traveled to...
Report from Poetic Justice 2022
Emancipate NC joined with Eno Friends Meeting, Alamance-Orange Prison Ministry, Human Kindness Foundation, and Our Children’s Place of Coastal Horizons on July 30 for an evening of art, music, and poetry. Emancipate NC undergraduate intern Bella Lane organized...
Raleigh Police Must Adopt A Guardian Mentality
Art by Dawn Blagrove Emancipate NC reported last month that as a result of consistent pressure from the community about its repeat incidents of excessive force, the Raleigh Police Department has resolved to adopt its first de-escalation policy. Emancipate NC Legal...
Progress in Wilson County
For the past three years, Emancipate NC has partnered with the Vera Institute of Justice, the NAACP of Wilson County, and CAPE, to transform Wilson County by reducing jail populations. Our lens is child welfare, and the way in which pretrial detention of a parent...
The Story of Tiffany Marion: Part I
By Kyla Holton Racial discrimination and implicit bias in the plea bargaining process plagues our criminal justice system. Plea bargains are legal deals in which a defendant waives their right to trial and pleads guilty. As part of a bargain, some charges may be...
What’s next?
By Elizabeth Simpson On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision protecting the right to abortion, effectively canceling the right to bodily autonomy for women and pregnant people. We know this decision will impact poor women of color most of all,...
Poetic Justice Evolves
Please save the date for an event on July 30, 2022, from 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at Margaret Lane Art Gallery in Hillsborough, NC. Emancipate NC will join with various groups, including Eno Friends Meeting, Alamance-Orange Prison Ministry, Human Kindness Foundation, and...