Since our last post, there have been several important rulings in Royal Oak Concerned Citizens et. al v. Brunswick County:
- On September 13, 2012, Judge Thomas Lock denied Defendant’s Motions to Dismiss Mark Hardy and ROCCA's Complaints.
- On November 14, 2012, the Court denied Defendant’s motion seeking to prohibit Plaintiffs from taking the depositions of a County Commissioner and the Assistant County Manager.
- On January 18, 2013, Plaintiffs filed a Motion to Compel Defendant to produce complete responses to a number of discovery requests, in part because Defendant had not produced an entire category of important documents: emails and other internal communications.
- On February 18, 2013, Plaintiffs filed a Motion to Compel the production of two more fact witnesses whom Defendant had refused to produce on the same “legislative immunity” grounds it had asserted last fall.
- On February 28, 2013, Plaintiffs filed a Motion in the Cause for Costs on grounds Defendant was in willful non-compliance with Judge Tally’s February 7, 2013 Order.
- On March 5, 2013 , Judge Tally denied Defendant's motion seeking to prohibit Plaintiffs from deposing former County Commission Chair Bill Sue and County Manager Marty Lawing.
Finally, on March 8, 2013, Judge Thomas Lock will hear, Defendant’s Motion to Reconsider. The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Superior Court in Smithfield, North Carolina.
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Posted by Elizabeth M. Haddix on Thu. March 7, 2013 2:50 PM
Categories: Brunswick County, Community Inclusion, Environmental Justice, Fair Housing, Race Discrimination
Rogers Road citizens rally for their community
The Center for Civil Rights continues to advocate for the
Rogers Road Neighborhood, a 150-year-old, majority African American community
divided between Chapel Hill and Carrboro that has hosted Orange County’s landfills
for over 40 years.
In 1972, the county sited an unlined landfill near the
community upon a promise to residents that it would close the landfill within
10 years. In 1982, the county instead extended
the life of the landfill and has since expanded it to include two municipal
waste landfills, two construction and demolition debris landfills, a leachate pond, a hazardous
waste collection site, a materials recovery facility, facilities for mulching
yard and clean wood waste, and facilities for managing scrap tires, old
appliances, scrap metal, and salvaged construction materials.
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Posted by Bethan R. Eynon on Mon. December 3, 2012 2:14 PM
Categories: Community Inclusion, Environmental Justice, Orange County, Race Discrimination, Segregation
Center attorneys speak with ROCCA Clients at August 13 hearing in Brunswick County Superior Court
On August 13, 2012, CCR attorneys Elizabeth Haddix and Peter
Gilbert, with co-counsel Jack Holtzman of the Fair Housing Project of Legal Aid
of North Carolina on behalf the Royal Oak Concerned Citizens Association
(ROCCA), Curtis McMillian and Dennis McMillian, defended against Brunswick
County’s motion to dismiss the ROCCA and McMillian claims filed over a year ago.
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Posted by Elizabeth M. Haddix on Wed. August 15, 2012 1:54 PM
Categories: Brunswick County, Community Inclusion, Environmental Justice, Fair Housing, Race Discrimination
ROCCA clients and attorneys in Brunswick County after the March 2012 hearing
At the end of March, and after four days of hearings since
October, 2011, Brunswick County’s Planning Board denied Operation Services’
application for a Special Exception Permit to construct a landfill near Supply,
NC, in the historic African American community of Royal Oak. The County spent $266,000 on legal services
in defense of the permit, which, according to County Manager Marty Lawing, was
necessary due to opposition to the permit.
The UNC Center for Civil Rights represented the opposition, a
community group called the Royal Oak Concerned Citizens Association (ROCCA).
“We are looking forward to an
end to the trucks, the dust, the noise and the negative stigma of living next
to the landfill,” said ROCCA president Lewis Dozier.
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Posted by Elizabeth M. Haddix on Fri. May 11, 2012 11:22 AM
Categories: Brunswick County, Community Inclusion, Environmental Justice, Race Discrimination
Ms. Florine Bell outside an abandoned home on Branch Avenue in Lincoln Heights, NC
UNC Law
students spent their Spring Break on the Wills Project, providing free wills,
powers of attorney, and living wills for low-wealth clients in Halifax, Lenoir,
Pitt, Avery and Watauga counties. The biannual Wills Project is sponsored
by the UNC Pro
Bono Program, Legal Aid, and the
UNC Center for Civil Rights. Before meeting
their first clients, students on the Eastern NC team were led on a walking tour
of Lincoln Heights, and excluded community in Halifax County, by community
advocate Ms. Florine Bell. Ms. Bell has
been a minister and organizer in Lincoln Heights for several years and has
spent her life fighting for economic, legal, and social justice in Halifax
County.
Standing
outside the Lighthouse of Deliverance Church on Branch Avenue, Ms. Bell gave a
brief history of Lincoln Heights. Community Inclusion Attorney Fellow Peter Gilbert then gave an overview
of community exclusion, the layered effects of disempowerment faced by Lincoln
Heights, and the Center’s work there and in other excluded communities.
Continue reading for more pictures, student remarks, and a video of Ms. Florine Bell's introduction and Center Attorney-Fellow Peter Gilbert speaking about community exclusion.
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Posted by Mark Dorosin on Tue. April 10, 2012 3:56 PM
Categories: Annexation, Community Inclusion, Community Leaders, Education, Environmental Justice, Halifax County, Heirs' Property, Law Students, Pro Bono, Race Discrimination, Segregation
Concerned citizens listen to speakers about continued poverty concerns in the state
The Truth and Hope Tour of Poverty in North Carolina
organized by the NAACP, the NC Justice Center, and the UNC Center on Poverty
Work and Opportunity, on January 19th and 20th visited
six counties in North Eastern North Carolina to hear from some of the most
excluded and exploited residents of North Carolina about their experience of
poverty. Story after story revealed the truth that poverty is not an
individual or personal problem, does not result from laziness or personal
morality, but too often results from specific government action or
inaction. The most recurring problems we heard were issues the UNC Center
for Civil Rights focuses on - manifestations of community exclusion, including lack
of access to water and sewer, segregated and underfunded schools, and unreasonably
high electric bills.
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Posted by Peter Hull Gilbert on Wed. January 25, 2012 2:07 PM
Categories: Annexation, Community Inclusion, Education, Environmental Justice, Halifax County, Heirs' Property, Segregation
Brunswick County residents gather outside the courthouse with Center Attorneys Elizabeth Haddix and Peter Gilbert
The
Center continues to represent the Royal Oak Concerned Citizens Association
(ROCCA) in opposition to Brunswick County’s efforts to construct a new
Construction & Demolition landfill in the majority African American Royal
Oak community.
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Posted by Mark Dorosin on Tue. January 24, 2012 4:36 PM
Categories: Brunswick County, Community Inclusion, Environmental Justice, Race Discrimination
On October 10, attorneys from the UNC Center for Civil Rights represented the Royal Oak community in Brunswick County in a quasi-judicial hearing in front of the county planning board over whether they will permit a new landfill in this historic black community. Royal Oak, one of only a few majority black communities in this 82% white county, is already burdened with the county’s only open landfill, its waste transfer station, sewage treatment facility, animal shelter, and numerous sand mines (privately owned but permitted by the county). In addition, the county has denied water and sewer service to the community, even though they installed pipes within a few hundred feet of residents to serve the animal shelter and sewage treatment plant. The Center for Civil Rights, along with the NC Fair Housing Project and the law firm of K&L Gates, currently represents the community in a separate lawsuit alleging that the placement of environmental hazards and the denial of water and sewer service is illegal racial discrimination and violates the North Carolina Fair Housing Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the NC Constitution. The lawsuit also alleges the county violated zoning laws in rezoning the properties to allow the new landfill.
News Updates on continued January 9, 2011 Special Exception Permit Hearing:
Landfill expansion plan sparks concern on property values,
Star News, (Jan. 9, 2012)
Hearing for Brunswick landfill expansion continues, WECT, (Jan. 10, 2012)
Hearing on landfill expansion continued until February, Brunswick Beacon (Jan. 10, 2012)
Brunswick County taxpayers paying for landfill not yet open, WECT (Jan. 10, 2012)
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Posted by Peter Hull Gilbert on Mon. November 7, 2011 1:45 PM
Categories: Brunswick County, Community Inclusion, Environmental Justice