http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/07/the-fight-against-school-re-segregation-heats-up-in-north-carolina.htmlA thousand people marched through the streets of North Carolina's capital yesterday to protest the local school board's dismantling of a lauded student assignment policy based on economic diversity in favor of neighborhood schools -- a move many fear will lead to de facto re-segregation.
Nineteen protesters were arrested, all for nonviolent infractions and most for disrupting the the school board meeting that followed the march by holding hands, chanting and refusing to leave the podium.
The morning march through downtown Raleigh was led by the state NAACP with support from churches, student groups and civil rights organizations. Among those who spoke at the rally following the march was Tim Tyson, a Duke University historian and a board member of the Institute for Southern Studies, which publishes Facing South. snip
The controversy began last year when elections were held for four of nine school board seats in Wake County, the state's largest school district. Conservative candidates backed by Republican politicians including former state Rep. Art Pope -- a businessman and director of the right-wing group Americans for Prosperity -- won all of those races, joining an ally already on the board to create a new conservative majority.