RSS
 KATY NICHOLSON | DAILY HERALD State Rep. Angela Bryant addresses a full house at the Halifax County Branch of the NAACP's Third Annual Freedom Fund Banquet Thursday. Bryant, keynote speaker, discussed work the state legislature has been doing to improve the quality of life throughout the state. |
Halifax County has much to celebrate, said David H. Harvey, 2005 Halifax County NAACP president of the year and past branch president. Alma Hinton and Brenda Branch are judges, Mark Macon is Weldon police chief, Dr. Ervin V. Griffin Sr. is president of Halifax Community College and James Pierce is “finally” chairman of the county's board of commissioners.
This is a big step forward, he said, but they deserve to be in those positions and should have been there years ago.
“Don't be fooled by the success of Halifax County,” Harvey said, because much of the country has not made the strides our county has.
As an example he pointed to Jena, La., where six black high school students are in jail for allegedly beating a white student. They face 15 to 20 years in prison. The NAACP has hired attorneys to represent the youth.
North Carolina NAACP State Conference President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II also said it's good to celebrate progress, but it's just as important not to get distracted from what still needs to be done.
“We can't have any U-turns on the road to justice. Some gains, yes, but there's still work to be done,” he said.
Barber discussed the issue of prosecutorial misconduct, calling it a “schizophrenic spectacle of injustice.”
He then talked about the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, in which many African-Americans were attacked and killed by a white mob.
“North Carolina has apologized for slavery and it has apologized for what happened in Wilmington, but apology ain't worth spit if it's not followed up with reparations and repairs,” Barber said.
‘A fighter for justice'
State Rep. Angela Bryant was the main speaker for the night. Bryant said she has been “a fighter for justice for a long time,” beginning at age 11, when she was one of a group of four students who integrated Rocky Mount City Schools.
She also was one of a small group of African-American students at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1969 and UNC Law School in 1973. She later became the first African-American administrative law judge for the state Industrial Commission and the Office of Administrative Hearings.
“I have spent my career working for justice and fighting for equality and changing systems and organizations to create success for all groups involved,” she said.
Bryant became state representative just as the session was beginning, and said she had to learn quickly how to keep up with the heavy workload and communicate with people in the district.
Bryant explained how she has set her legislative priorities, through town meetings and a 14-point agenda from the NAACP, which includes goals related to such issues as education, health care, justice and bringing the troops home from Iraq.
Legislative improvements
The legislature has addressed many of these points, Bryant noted. For example, it passed a budget that includes $11 billion - or nearly 60 percent of the entire budget - for education. Additional funding is benefiting programs such as Learn & Earn, which allows high-schoolers to earn college credits at no charge, and a program that will provide $4,000-a-year grants to 25,000 students in the state's community colleges and public universities.
“That's a program that we should all be proud of,” Bryant said. “We are building better futures for our children, a better economy for our state and hopefully reducing the costs for prisons and Medicaid and social services, costs that are often associated with people who are poor or uneducated.”
As for health care, Bryant said the state will be taking over the Medicaid costs that counties have been paying, beginning with about $500 million this year. Halifax County is expected to receive $4.4 million in Medicaid relief by 2010-2011. Bryant co-sponsored a law requiring insurance companies to provide mental health coverage equal to the coverage they provide for physical health.
The state legislature also has been working for justice, Bryant noted. She helped pass a bill to study whether people who were sterilized under the state's eugenics program (which was often based on such factors as race or economics) deserve to be compensated financially. The House also approved a bill preventing anyone from being executed or sentenced to death for a conviction based on race.
“Race unfortunately still plays a role in our judicial system, no matter how colorblind prosecutors and judges profess to be,” she said.
Locally, the legislature has provided funding for road improvements at Eastman Middle School, Halifax Community College, and likely an access road for Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park and Eco-Center.
Bryant said she's appreciated the input she has received from the community, and she is always looking for more.
“I want to join with you to help overcome barriers, challenges and inequalities we face and I believe that together we can create successful outcomes for ourselves and our whole community if we fully utilize what we all bring to the table,” she said.
‘We are all a color'
State Sen. Ed Jones spoke briefly, and said people of all colors should be members of the NAACP, and the issues that had been discussed - such as health care and the military - affect everyone.
“That ‘C' stands for colored,” he noted. “We all are colored. We're all a color.”
Deborah Robinson, president of the Halifax County Branch of the NAACP, explained to the Daily Herald that the fund-raising banquet brings people together in the community and helps support the NAACP's mission of “justice and civil rights for all.”
“The very most important aspect of this is to remember diversity, diversity, diversity,” she said. “If we cannot work together, then we will only form those bridges that will soon fall.”
Comments