Blog
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...
Emancipate NC Seeks Constitutional and Humane Conditions for NC Returning Citizens
Mr. Erik Hooks, SecretaryMs. Jodi Harrison, Deputy General Counsel N.C. Department of Public Safety Re: Durham “COVID Motel” Dear Secretary Hooks and Attorney Harrison, As an organization that is based in Durham and focused on criminal justice issues, we have followed...
Emancipate NC Statement on the Insurrection of the U.S. Capitol
Digesting what happened to America yesterday will take time. We do not profess to have fully processed, but as we work through unpacking the historic insurrection that occurred, more and more layers will be laid bare. We have seen many emails from organizations,...
We Are Living Abolition
Hi Friends, We are truly in our feelings at Emancipate NC at the end of 2020. We’ve had a year that is full of heartbreak. And also full of love. We know so many of you have lost people to COVID-19. We mourn with you. Emancipate NC has also lost loved ones. So many...
Court Appoints Special Master in Ongoing Prison COVID Litigation
We finally have some good news on the prison COVID litigation. On Friday, December 4, 2020, after a hearing in Wake County Superior Court, Judge Vince Rozier, Jr. appointed a Special Master to oversee the state prison's compliance with court orders. The court...
Good White Folks: Get Your Damn People
(My Experience In Advocacy & Why Most White People Today Don’t Believe They Are Racist) by Amanda Anderson, Justice League Fellow The police shootings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others have recently put race at the forefront of...
Emancipate NC Files Amicus Brief Asserting Racial Bias in Jury Selection is Beyond Dispute
Racism is a scourge on North Carolina’s criminal legal system. It renders the system fundamentally unfair at every single step. From decisions about policing, arrest, use of force, bail setting, charging, plea negotiations, jury selection, and sentencing--all of the...