The Rev. William Barber is speaking out on the Wake County school board elections, but he doesn't want the media to hear what he'll be saying.

Barber, president of the state NAACP, has scheduled a "community mass meeting" for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Martin Street Baptist Church, 1001 E. Martin St. in Raleigh. The meeting is not open to the media.

During the meeting, Barber will give a presentation. The audience will also hear from "political action experts." Topics include early voting, voter education and mobilization.

It looks like the Wake County school system will be in the spotlight tonight at a YWCA community forum on racism in the schools.

According to this press release, organizers say they will "take an in-depth look at how racism impacts area public schools." The press release cites the suspension rates for minority and low-income students in Wake.

"Education is intertwined with other social and economic justice issues because they share the same systemic roots with racism and classicism," said YWCA of the Greater Triangle Executive Director Folami Bandele in the press release. "We can and must do better for the futures of our youth, and we will continue to forge conversations in our community challenging these divides."

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.

Cash Michaels is focusing on the challenges parents face at high-poverty schools as he continues to criticize the Wake County school board for ending the diversity policy.

In a blog post today on the seventh part of his series in The Carolinian on the new Walnut Creek Elementary School, Michaels relates the speech that Susan Perry Cole made at last week's OCR hearing at Martin Street Baptist Church.

Perry shared her experience with sending her child to “a racially identifiable, low wealth, poor academically achieving school in a nearby county.”

Is the Wake County school system making the right call in turning down the offer by federal investigators to hold a second public meeting?

As noted in Saturday's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Superintendent Tony Tata said they've turned down the offer from OCR. Instead of that kind of a hearing, Tata said they're focusing on holding public meetings on the new student assignment plan

This rejection of the meeting offer comes after the feds held last week's meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church in Raleigh. That meeting was organized by the complainants.

The state NAACP has just sent out a last-minute press release urging people to attend tonight's public meeting being held by federal civil rights investigators probing the Wake County school system.

In the press release, the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, says "this is an opportunity for OCR to hear directly from the community about the actions and statements of the right wing school board."

Here's the press release:

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 system is formally putting the feds on notice that they're upset with the decision to hold Wednesday's community meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church in downtown Raleigh.

In this letter today to federal officials, Wake school board attorney Ann Majestic argues that there is “no evidence that OCR made any attempts to ensure that the hearing would be held in a neutral location or that the event was widely publicized in the community.”

Majestic writes that Martin Street Baptist is “a decidedly non-neutral location,” citing how critics of the school board have frequently held events there.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Is it a sign of bias that federal civil rights investigators looking into Wake County's elimination of the diversity policy are holding Wednesday's community meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the feds asked the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, one of the complainants, to find them a location. The site chosen by SCSJ has been one of the centers of opposition to ending the diversity policy.

“The Office of Civil Rights wanted to have a communitywide meeting,” said Anita Earls, SCSJ executive director. “They gave us the date and time and asked us to find a venue. The purpose is for them to listen to the experiences and the concerns of the community.”

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

It looks like the feds are coming to Raleigh next week to hear from the public as part of the civil rights investigation of the Wake County school system.

Cash Michaels is reporting on his blog today hat the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights will hold the public meeting on May 4 from 7-9 p.m. at Martin Street Baptist Church, 1001 E. Martin Street in Raleigh. His source is the state NAACP, which filed the complaint.

It's not uncommon for OCR to hold public meetings during an investigation. The feds held a public meeting in Wayne County to investigate the NAACP complaint against that school district.

Martin Street Baptist is one of the centers for opposition to the school board majority so it's likely that supporters of the old diversity policy will turn out in force next week.