The Concerned Clergy of Durham is calling on the Wake County school board to restore the socioeconomic diversity policy and "honor an historic and successful educational policy."

In a statement that was scheduled to be released this morning, the group of 38 clergy members invoke the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" to explain why they're speaking out about Wake County. They say "they're standing in support of the action taken by" the four people arrested at the June 15 school board meeting, including state NAACP head the Rev. William Barber.

"We call on all people of faith across the Triangle to stand united in opposition to the actions of the Wake County School Board in solidarity, prayer and action," according to the statement. "We will do what it takes to see that every child is provided a high quality and equal educational experience."

Wake County school board member John Tedesco is firing back at the attacks launched against him at Monday night's rally and over the past several month by the leaders of the state NAACP.

In a letter Tuesday to the Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Tedesco says the four who were arrested at last week's school board meeting "have never offered to be part of the solution." Petty and the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, have justified the arrests on the grounds that the board failed to negotiate with them on the end of the diversity policy.

"If you all spent the same amount of hours as you have in protesting and organizing media spectacles on actually volunteering for after school literacy initiatives we could have already helped thousands of more children," Tedesco says in his letter.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The title isn't as pithy, but the Rev. William Barber and the Rev. Nancy Petty have released today their own version of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

In their "Thoughts While we were Being Handcuffed, and Processed at the Wake County Jail on June 15 after Engaging in an Act of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience," Barber and Petty explain why they were willing to be arrested at last week's wake County school board meeting.

"In the best American traditions, from Henry David Thoreau to Ella Baker to Martin Luther King, Jr., we recognize the necessary place of civil disobedience: breaking a small and unjust law in order to protect a larger and broadly significant law," writes Barber, head of the state NAACP, and Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church.

CORRECTED TITLE OF POST

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is invoking the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in criticizing the Wake County school board's decision to eliminate diversity from the student assignment policy.

In a press release today, GSIW chairwoman Yeonnne Brannon notes how Dr. King told a weary but undeterred crowd after the 1965 civil rights march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Supporters of the diversity policy have made frequent references to the civil rights movement during their campaign.

"The more than 10,000 members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, too, remain undeterred in our quest for fairness for all students in our public school system," Brannon writes. "History will again show that moral conviction will triumph over convenience.”

We have quite a confluence of dates today -- Easter as well as the anniversary of the late great Martin Luther King Jr.'s death. So it seems appropriate to give this period piece a look, and ponder how many things have (and haven't) changed over the past four decades.

TV One has been really stepping up lately, distinguishing itself with some really strong projects. (Ahem, BET)

Sunday at 9 comes another great effort, "Stand," a documentary, directed and co-written by Tavis Smiley, the activist/commentator/PBS TV host.

It features Smiley and 10 friends traveling on a bus from Nashville to Memphis, talking about race, politics and history during the summer before Sen. Barack Obama became President Obama.

Lucky folk who have HBO 2 can watch "The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306" tonight at 8pm. It's an Oscar nominee this year for best documentary short subject.

The Witness is Rev. Samuel "Billy" Kyles who was on the Lorraine Hotel balcony when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It's a role that at first plagued Kyles, and then gave him purpose.

The 30-minute film explains the context of that time; King was in Memphis to support sanitation workers who sought only to be treated as men as part of his Poor People's Campaign. That campaign represented a shift in King's mission from civil rights to economic rights, and some believe that made him a bigger target and sealed his tragic fate.

The film gives background on the last days, including the Mountaintop speech, as well as the last moments. Kyles was with King during his last hour.

After his death, and a nine-week strike, the sanitation workers got a 10-cent raise.

Other air dates:

Feb 20@ 9:15am

Feb. 22@ 4:30pm

Feb. 26@ 5:15pm

Feb. 28@ 11:30am

Martin Luther King's legendary "I Have a Dream" speech has long been pop-culture fodder, whether as inspiration or as raw material for deejays. But here's one of the oddest uses of it I've happened across -- set to the music of Eminem's "Lose Yourself," of all things.

Happy MLK day, y'all.

Celebrating the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A somewhat tall tale is being spread by some Broughton High alumni to lobby against the front lawn being turned into a parking lot.

"Are you aware that Martin Luther King Jr. gave the Non-Violence and Racial Justice speech on the Broughton High School lawn on Feb 10, 1958. This is not a bunch of sentimental alumni trying to preserve a front lawn. There is real historical significance here that most people are not aware of. It would seem even the Historical Commission should be notified," says the e-mail being distributed around the community.

This web site is used as proof. But things didn't quite happen that way.