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For Immediate Release
November, 02 2018, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Malik Russell, mrussell@naacpnet.org or Joy, media@naacpnc.org
NAACP Wins in NC Racial Gerrymandering Case
Legislature ordered to fix racial gerrymandering violation in next session
Raleigh
The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP obtained yet another ruling that the North Carolina legislative map violates legal requirements. Today, a three-judge panel of the North Carolina General Court of Justice, Superior Court Division, ruled that four districts in the North Carolina House of Representatives (Districts 36, 37, 40 and 41) violate the prohibition in the North Carolina Constitution on mid-decade redistricting. The four districts in question were redrawn, along with several other North Carolina legislative districts, following a 2016 ruling by a federal court that several districts in the 2011 North Carolina legislative map constituted racial gerrymanders in violation of the U.S. Constitution's equal protection guarantee.
"This is an important victory for the NAACP as we fight to ensure that communities of color have a full opportunity to elect representatives who will protect their interests in state legislatures across the country" said Bradford M. Berry, NAACP General Counsel.
Following the remedial phase of the federal case, the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP filed suit in state court arguing that redrawing Districts 36, 37, 40 and 41 was unnecessary to remedy the violations found by the federal court, and therefore unlawful under the North Carolina Constitution. Today, a three-judge panel of the North Carolina court agreed.
"From the time of Reconstruction and beforehand, opponents of a true democracy have attempted to silence and suppress Black political power, and each time we've stood strong and fought back - today is one of those times," said Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, NAACP North Carolina State President. "We are committed to this fight of making democracy real for all of us and stand ready to do battle against those who seek to shrink this ideal."
The North Carolina State NAACP partnered with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice on this legal victory.
Founded Feb. 12. 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
LATEST NEWS
Family Demands US Probe Into Israeli Settlers' 'Lynching' of American Citizen
The family of Sayfollah Musallet called his killing by Israeli settlers "an unimaginable nightmare and an injustice that no family should ever have to face."
Jul 14, 2025
The family of 20-year-old U.S. citizen Sayfollah Musallet is being joined by a number of advocacy groups in demanding a full U.S.-led investigation into the young man's fatal beating by Israeli settlers in the West Bank last week—and pushing back against the corporate media's characterization of the brutal attack.
"We demand the U.S. State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes," said the family in a statement, referring to Musallet by his nickname.
The family described how Israeli settlers "surrounded Saif for over three hours as paramedics attempted to reach him, but the mob of settlers blocked the ambulance and paramedics from providing life-saving aid."
Musallet's brother finally was able to retrieve him and bring him to a nearby hospital, but he died from his injuries before arriving there.
The State Department has said little about the killing of Musallet, who was a 20-year-old Palestinian-American with dual citizenship who was born in Florida, where he was still living when he traveled to the West Bank to visit family for the summer.
The Trump administration told Al Jazeera late Friday that the department "has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas," and said it was "aware of reports of the death of a U.S. citizen in the West Bank," but did not provide further details about how it was proceeding following Musallet's killing.
Meanwhile, rights advocates condemned The New York Times' reporting on the attack, which it called "a clash." It cited the Israeli government's claim that "the violence began when Palestinians threw stones at Israeli civilians."
"This was a lynching, not a 'clash,'" said Imraan Siddiqi, executive director of the Washington State office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Musallet is at least the ninth U.S. citizen to be killed by Israeli forces or settlers since 2022. The U.S. government has historically accepted the results of Israel's investigations into killings like those of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.
Under pressure, the Department of Justice finally opened a probe into the 2022 fatal shooting of Abu Akleh, but more than three years after her killing it has not released its findings.
None of the Israeli killings of U.S. citizens have resulted in criminal charges.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee told Al Jazeera Saturday that the U.S. "must stop treating Palestinian American lives as expendable."
"Israeli settlers lynched 20-year-old Palestinian American Sayfollah Musallet, while U.S. officials stayed silent," the group said. "Sayfollah was born and raised in Florida. He was visiting family for the summer in the West Bank when settlers beat him to death while he protested illegal land seizures."
Musallet's family said his killing is "an unimaginable nightmare and an injustice that no family should ever have to face."
"We demand justice," they said.
Zeteo journalist Mehdi Hasan noted that along with the Trump administration near-silence, Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has so far said nothing publicly about the killing of the Tampa resident.
"Why do Israelis keep murdering Americans?" said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now. "Perhaps it's because they know our government will never do a damn thing about it?"
"Not even a word of condolence offered to his family, not from 'America First' President Trump, not from the Florida governor, not from the State Department," she said. "Seems it's always just really Israel First for these folks."
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'Horrific': Israeli Military Kills Seven Children in Latest Attack on Water Distribution Site
Gaza's Government Media Office said Israeli forces have killed more than 700 people at water distribution sites since October 2023.
Jul 14, 2025
Israeli forces on Sunday killed at least 10 people—most of them children—as they attempted to obtain water at a distribution point in central Gaza, an attack that came as Israel's military was accused of intentionally depriving Palestinians of access to water as part of its U.S.-backed genocidal assault on the enclave.
The attack on Sunday killed seven children and injured more than a dozen people, drawing international outrage.
"Yet again we're seeing horrific reports of the killing of seven children in Gaza, this time as they were waiting for water at a distribution site," said Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund. "This comes just days after several children and women were killed waiting for nutritional supplies."
"The Israeli authorities must urgently review the rules of engagement and ensure full compliance with international humanitarian law, notably the protection of civilians, including children," Russell added. "UNICEF calls for an immediate and lasting cease-fire, aid at scale, and release of hostages."
The Israeli military acknowledged that it carried out the attack but denied it was trying to hit the water distribution point, claiming that a "technical error" caused the missile to miss its purported target—an Islamic Jihad militant—by dozens of meters.
Gaza's Government Media Office said in a statement early Monday that Israeli forces have killed more than 700 people in more than 100 attacks on water distribution sites since October 2023. The media office also said the Israeli government has prevented 12 million liters of fuel from entering the enclave per month, "the minimum amount needed to operate water wells, sewage treatment plants, waste collection vehicles, and other vital sectors."
"The Gaza Strip is today witnessing a major crime of deprivation of water, perpetrated deliberately and systematically by the Israeli occupation, amidst complete international silence and the direct and indirect participation of European and Western countries implicated in supporting or complicit in the crime of genocide," the office said.
Leading humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam and Human Rights Watch (HRW), have also accused the Israeli government of using water as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip by cutting off supply and decimating the enclave's existing infrastructure, including wells and desalination plants.
The International Rescue Committee said last week that Gaza's "entire water system has broken down" and warned that "there is simply not enough clean water to meet the needs of the population in Gaza."
"When clean water is unavailable, the consequences extend far beyond thirst; families are forced to rely on unsafe water sources for cooking, cleaning, and bathing, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks like skin conditions, diarrhea, and hepatitis," the group said. "This compounds the burden on Gaza's collapsing health system, particularly in overcrowded shelters with limited hygiene options."
Israeli forces have also been massacring civilians at food distribution sites in recent weeks as famine spreads throughout Gaza.
The United Nations said on Friday that it recorded 798 killings at food distribution locations in Gaza between May 27 and July 7, with the overwhelming majority occurring in the vicinity of sites managed by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
"They have a choice between being shot or being fed," said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights Office.
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Sanders Says Trump Is Prioritizing Profits for 'Fossil Fuel Executive Friends' by Gutting Climate Office
"He just fired the last remaining State Department employees who work on climate change, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest threats to our national security," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Jul 14, 2025
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday condemned President Donald Trump's decision to terminate all remaining federal employees at the State Department office that works on international climate policy, a move that came as the administration hired prominent climate denialists and continued to boost the industry primarily responsible for the planetary crisis.
In a statement, Sanders (I-Vt.) accused Trump of "putting the planet and future generations at risk for the short-term profits of his fossil fuel executive friends." The president has repeatedly described climate change as a "hoax" and a "scam" and has moved aggressively to silence researchers and suppress data that contradict his false position.
Grist's Kate Yoder wrote Monday that "this isn't climate denial in the traditional sense."
"The days of loudly debating the science have mostly given way to something quieter and more insidious: a campaign to withhold the raw information itself," Yoder added.
Sanders' statement came days after the U.S. State Department fired all employees still at the Office of Global Change, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio is moving to eliminate at Trump's behest. Most of the office's staffers, who were tasked with engaging in international climate negotiations, had already departed voluntarily amid Trump's sweeping withdrawal from global climate initiatives and talks.
From May 2024 to May 2025, 4 billion people (half of the world’s population) experienced at least one extra month of extreme heat due to climate change.
And what is Trump’s response? He just fired the last remaining State Department employees who work on climate change. pic.twitter.com/IOlH9MImHU
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 13, 2025
Sanders highlighted the context of Trump's assault on climate science and diplomacy, pointing to "flooding in Texas this past week and in Vermont and Brazil last summer, recent wildfires in Canada and Los Angeles, and heatwaves in the United States, Europe, India, and Pakistan"—extreme weather made more intense by fossil fuel-driven climate change.
"The past 10 years have been the warmest 10 years on record," the senator noted. "2024 was the warmest year in recorded history. January 2025 was the hottest January on record. Western Europe just had its hottest June on record. The recent heatwave in the United States put nearly 190 million Americans under heat advisories and broke heat records in more than 280 locations. Over the past 60 years, the frequency of heatwaves in the United States has tripled. According to a new study from Yale University, 64% of Americans think global warming is affecting the weather in the U.S. and almost half say they have personally experienced its effects."
"And what is President Trump's response? He just fired the last remaining State Department employees who work on climate change, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest threats to our national security," said Sanders.
While removing federal climate staffers and experts en masse, Trump's administration has hired prominent climate denialists and moved to expand planet-warming oil and gas drilling—a gift to the fossil fuel giants that poured nearly $20 million into the president's inaugural fund and helped bankroll his White House campaign.
"Every month that Donald Trump has been in power, we've seen a raft of anti-climate measures come out which are music to the fossil fuel industry's ears," said Nicu Calcea, senior data investigator at Global Witness. "From plans to steamroll through dirty new coal plants, to the attempted quashing of 'polluter pays' laws that would hold oil giants accountable, it's clear where his political priorities lie."
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