Thursday night's community mass meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church dealt with the new Wake County student assignment plan, getting mediation for the school board protesters and assailing the conditions at Walnut Creek Elementary School.

As noted in today's article, most the focus of the meeting led by the state NAACP and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition was on complaints about the assignment plan. The crowd of around 50 people, mainly supporters of the old diversity policy, were urged to contact school leaders to change the plan.

"If you let the plane fly in the air and you don’t make those course corrections that you feel need to be made in order to make it a more successful plan for all students so we have a fair and diverse and well-funded education for all students, then shame on us if we don’t advocate for the changes to make it happen," said Patty Williams of Great Schools in Wake.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Here's a recap of today's press conference in which speakers urged the Wake County school board and DA's office to use mediation instead of trials for the protestors arrested at board meetings in 2010.
 
Speakers said seeking mediation would heal the community, save taxpayer money and not tie up court dockets. You also had speakers from the Great Schools in Wake Coalition who both called for mediation while simultaneously defending the new Democratic board majority.

“I’m here to encourage the school board to take up mediation instead of ripping us apart,” said the Rev. Duane Beck, co-chair of Congregations for Social Justice and pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church.

The Democratic majority on the Wake County school board is now taking public criticism over rejecting mediation with the protesters who were arrested at board meetings in 2010.

The Rev. Earl Johnson, pastor of Martin Street Baptist Church, announced today that he will hold a press conference on Tuesday to voice dissatisfaction with the school board's action. Democratic board members have tried to argue their decision doesn't mean they want trials but prosecutors say it's causing them to seek them.

Johnson will call on the school board to now ask for mediation.

Was Tuesday's adoption of a new Wake County student assignment plan the culmination of years of study and discussion or a rushed decision?

As noted in today's article, school board members and administrators defended the vote as being necessary to avoid delaying implementation of the plan. But critics, particularly during the public comment section, urged the board to hold off adoption until the newly elected members have their say on the plan.

"The voters spoke," said Robert Hyman. "You lost the election. In effect, the chair of this board has been fired. You owe it to the new board to discuss it with them before you completely lose your moral authority and your legitimacy.”

Before I start my vacation, here's a statement that the state NAACP released today about Thursday's meeting with Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata.

Follow-Up Statement from Meeting with Superintendent Anthony Tata

The NAACP Meets with Superintendent Tata to Continue Discussion on the Important Connections Between Socio-Economic Diversity, Resources and Student Achievement

Here's more about what was said at last week's OCR meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church.

Click here for an earlier post about the meeting. Most of the speakers and the crowd were opposed to the school board majority's elimination of the diversity policy.

The meeting kicked off with the Rev. Earl Johnson, pastor of Martin Street Baptist, getting laughs and applause from the crowd when he quipped that the church was "a very neutral site by the way." That was in response to the complaints from the school system about holding the meeting at the church.

The Rev. Earl Johnson, pastor of Martin Street Baptist Church, is defending holding tonight's OCR public meeting at his church.

In a letter to the editor published today, Johnson says the criticism from school board member John Tedesco and school board attorney Ann Majestic about meeting at Martin is "ill-advised." The meeting to give feedback to federal civil rights investigators probing Wake's elimination of the diversity policy will start at 7 p.m. at 1001 E. Martin Street in Raleigh.

Johnson touts Martin Street Baptist's "long history of involvement in the spiritual, social, economic and sometimes political health of Southeast Raleigh." He writes that a more neutral site isn't needed "because the essence of Martin Street has always been to open its doors to all citizens, regardless of race, color, class, gender or political affiliation."

The Wake County school board majority was essentially equated by diversity policy supporters to be demon possessed at this evening's prayer vigil at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh.

The Rev. Earl Johnson, pastor of Martin Street Baptist Church in Raleigh, asked the dozen clergy members in the audience to set aside one Sunday service in September for prayer. He urged them to pray for schools,  diversity in schools, student achievement and...

"Pray that this demonic presence that is trying to take over the school system will not prevail," Johnson said.

Supporters of Wake County's old diversity policy are calling for a day of mass prayer on Monday at Raleigh's Pullen Memorial Baptist Church to "promote school excellence, stop resegregation."

In a press release, the Rev. Nancy Petty, Pullen's senior pastor, announced  that the public prayer meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at her church. The meeting will be held after a 3 p.m. clergy summit at Raleigh's Martin Street Baptist Church that will be led by the Rev. Earl Johnson, that church's pastor, and Petty.

Monday was chosen because it's the 39th anniversary of when Raleigh began to aggressively integrate its schools.

The pretty strong implication coming from speakers at Monday night's rally is that God is on the side of those who support Wake County's old diversity policy.

As noted in today's article, God was repeatedly invoked by multiple speakers, many of whom are Christian ministers. God was used both to justify fighting the school board and to back any efforts at civil disobedience.

The Rev. Nancy Petty, senior pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, which hosted the rally, called for the crowd to engage in direct action. She also prayed for God to encourage them to act for social justice.