Blog
End Juvenile Life Without Parole
On May 6, Emancipate NC filed an amicus curiae brief in the North Carolina Supreme Court in support of Darrell Tristan Anderson, a Black man who was sentenced to life in prison for crimes he committed when he was a 17-year-old child. We urge the Court to prohibit...
The Verdict Is In
Photo credit: bgrocker / Shutterstock.com The verdict is in. The criminal justice system worked to hold one man accountable for the heartless murder of another man. That should not be something we have to celebrate. That is what a just system does. But the American...
Tablets With Legal Resources Coming to NC Prisons
Emancipate NC Community Organizer Kerwin Pittman is the justice-impacted member of the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (TREC) established by Governor Roy Cooper. This week, NCDPS officials shared at a TREC subcommittee meeting that they will be...
“Who’s Next?”: Another Heartbreaking Week For Black Lives
The following is a re-print of a piece by Joel Brown for ABC 11, published on April 13, 2021, featuring Emancipate NC staff Kerwin Pittman and Dawn Blagrove. The original piece can be located here. Many police reform advocates in the Triangle are frustrated, losing...
A Story About Protest Defense in Wilmington, NC
My name is Vanessa Gonzalez. For the last decade, my day job has been as an immigration attorney, assisting undocumented folx to obtain immigration status and avoid deportation. Since my college years, I have participated in numerous protests and demonstrations. It...
Open Letter to Josh Stein
N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein, Chair of the Racial Equity Task Force, Has Been a Disappointment to Racial Justice Advocates. We Challenge Him to Do Better. A Call to Action from Emancipate NC, March 30, 2021 Governor Cooper’s appointment of Attorney General Josh...
Josh Stein: Respect Racial Justice
On Tuesday, March 30, 2021, at 10 am, Emancipate NC will hold a virtual press conference via Zoom to share an open letter to Attorney General Josh Stein. Speakers include Emancipate NC Executive Director, Attorney Dawn Blagrove, Emancipate NC staff attorney Ian...
Update on the COVID Motel
Following an intervention from Emancipate NC, the NC Department of Public Safety announced changes to procedures at its “COVID motel” in Durham, which the department has used since late 2020 to quarantine people being released from DPS custody. The changes are in...
Raleigh Demands Justice Calls for Defunding the Police
by Kate Evans, Emancipate NC Intern Raleigh Demands Justice holds virtual press conference following resignation of Raleigh Police Advisory Board members On March 10, two members of the Raleigh Police Advisory Board resigned. Scotia Burrell and Stacey Carless, former...
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! This week, Emancipate clients Shannon Nyamodi (second from right, pictured with his mother) and Sandy Dowell (left, pictured with her wife) were given release papers from state prison, after months of relentless advocacy. Sandy served 30 years in...
Emancipate NC and Allies Condemn SB 100
Photo credit: Simone Hogan / Shutterstock.com Emancipate NC is an organization working on behalf of Black and Brown North Carolinians directly impacted by systemic racism and insufferable injustice. The undersigned strongly oppose SB 100. We write to oppose the...
Emancipate NC Calls for Accountability from Apex PD
Direct link to the reports released by the Town of Apex At the request of multiple Apex citizens at Tuesday’s town council meeting, the Town of Apex leadership made the prudent decision to release a series of organizational climate assessment reports, conducted over...
14 year old, Malcolm Zigler, unlawfully handcuffed and detained by Fuquay-Varina Police
Photo credits: Jade Wilson By Aneesha Tucker, Emancipate NC Intern On January 30, 2021, Fuquay-Varina Police unreasonably handcuffed and detained Malcolm Zigler, a 14 year old Black boy, for “stealing” a dirt bike that he purchased. Zigler started working on dirt...
Remove Confederate Monuments Now
In a series of demonstrations spurred initially by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, some twenty million Americans took to the streets over the past year in mass mobilizations for racial justice, historic expressions of public grief and anger...
NC Prisons plan to expand quarantine program despite community concerns about legality
This image, depicting Durham’s COVID motel, the Quality Inn, was borrowed from the Indy Week. The photographer is Jade Wilson. By Aneesha Tucker, Emancipate NC Intern On January 22, 2021, the News and Observer reported that North Carolina prisons planned to...