logo
Donate
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
    • Glossary
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Magazine
  • Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Conservatives Seek to “Defang” University-based Civil Rights Center

Ruth McCambridge
April 24, 2017
By Yeungb (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

April 23, 2017; SFGate.com

Litigation has been a critical and much-used tactic in resisting President Trump’s policies at the federal level in the last few months, so it is certainly no surprise that progressive legal entities might find themselves under fire by conservatives, especially when they are somewhat iconic.

Theodore Shaw, director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina School of Law, led Barack Obama’s transition team for civil rights at the Department of Justice. Now, the 16-year-old Center is under attack by conservatives on the state’s board of governors, who want to prohibit the center from filing lawsuits on behalf of poor and disenfranchised populations.

While lawsuits are only one part of its work, it is one of the center’s mainstay strategies for pursuing change in recalcitrant systems. Here’s what the center does:

The UNC Center for Civil Rights is committed to the advancement of civil rights and social justice, especially in the American South. It fosters empirical and analytical research, sponsors student inquiry and activities and convenes faculty, visiting scholars, policy advocates and practicing attorneys to confront legal and social issues of greatest concern to racial and ethnic minorities, to the poor and to other potential beneficiaries of civil rights advances. The Center’s work focuses on education, housing and community development, economic justice and voting rights.

Those who would like to eliminate the center’s courtroom work says that it strays from the education mission of the country’s oldest public university. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor Gene Nichol disagrees and calls the proposal “strictly, certainly and undoubtedly ideological.”

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Board member Steve Long said the center must refocus on its education mission, and “one of the things you say no to is public interest law firms.” He added, “free enterprise, civil rights, protection of children’s rights—whatever the cause it doesn’t matter. Are you going to stay on mission as an educational institution or not?”

The same board closed Nichols’ UNC’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity two years ago.

Presumably, Long feels that involving students in cases that protect people against discrimination is devoid of educational value. The Center for Civil Rights has specialized in fighting social, economic, and racial discrimination on behalf of individuals and organizations in North Carolina who would often otherwise be too poor to pay for the representation.

“The folks pushing this are opposed to the nature of the advocacy that the center does and the issues that people we represent are fighting for,” said Mark Dorosin, the center’s managing attorney.

Again, as with the threats to defund the Legal Services Corporation and similar efforts to deconstruct our litigation capabilities, other nonprofits should resist actively.—Ruth McCambridge

About the author
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: Civic InfrastructureNonprofit NewsPolicy

Our Voices Are Our Power.

Journalism, nonprofits, and multiracial democracy are under attack. At NPQ, we fight back by sharing stories and essential insights from nonprofit leaders and workers—and we pay every contributor.

Can you help us protect nonprofit voices?

Your support keeps truth alive when it matters most.
Every single dollar makes a difference.

Donate now
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
Trump Moves to Gut Low-Income Energy Assistance as Summer Heat Descends and Electricity Prices Rise
Conor Harrison, Elena Louder, Nikki Luke and Shelley Welton
“Advocacy Works”: Nonprofit Status-Stripping Measure Dropped from Republican Budget
Isaiah Thompson
In Asheville, A Community Gathers to Consider What “Resiliency” Requires
Steve Dubb
Cancer Research in the US Is World Class Because of Its Broad Base of Funding—with the Government Pulling Out, Its Future Is Uncertain
Jeffrey MacKeigan
Endowments Aren’t Blank Checks—but Universities Can Rely on Them More Heavily in Turbulent Times
Ellen P. Aprill
US Colleges and Universities Have Billions Stashed Away in Endowments—a Higher Ed Finance Expert Explains What They Are
Todd L. Ely

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
May 27th, 2:00 pm ET

Ask the Nonprofit Lawyer

Register
Group Created with Sketch.
June 26th, 2:00 pm ET

From Performance Management to Mutual Commitment

Fostering a Culture of Joyful Accountability

Register

    
You might also like
A close-up of a man with dark brown skin sitting outside in a park with a white towel around his neck. An older woman with brown skin sits next to him, wiping her neck with her towel in the heat.
Trump Moves to Gut Low-Income Energy Assistance as Summer...
Conor Harrison, Elena Louder, Nikki Luke and Shelley Welton
A view of the US Capitol against a blue sky.
“Advocacy Works”: Nonprofit Status-Stripping Measure...
Isaiah Thompson
US Capitol Building
Tax Provision Would Give Trump Administration Unilateral...
Rebekah Barber and Isaiah Thompson

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Donate
  • Editorial Policy
  • Funders

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.