The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, is at today's Wake County school board meeting.

Barber had been barred from attending school board meetings as a result of his arrest on trespassing charges at board meetings in 2010. Barber pleaded guilty to the charges on Friday as part of a plea deal that will allow him to get the charges dismissed if he performs 40 hours of community service over the next six months.

It's unclear whether Barber has permission to be at the meeting since the District Attorney's Office said the trespassing notice is still technically in effect until the charges are dismissed. But the board could have opted on its own to waive the trespass notices.

Even before the charges were adjudicated, Barber and other protesters could attend board meetings if they submitted a letter in writing saying they promised to follow board rules. They didn't exercise that option before.

UPDATE

The Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Raleigh's Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, and Middle Creek High student Seth Keel are also at the meeting. They had also been trespassed and pleaded guilty Friday.

Barber said the trespass notices ended once they pleaded guilty. He said he and ther others will be reglarly back at the board meetings to monitor things.

Barber, Petty and Keel are getting hugged and congratulated by members of the audience.

If the idea of prosecution is to deter people from committing an offense again, it doesn't look like that's happening for at least some of the people who pleaded guilty on Friday to disrupting Wake County school board meetings in 2010.

As noted in today's article, protesters who spoke to the media after entering guilty pleas were defiant. They said they were proud of their actions and would be prepared to be arrested again if they don't like how the new school board or future boards are acting.

"We now are able to go back to the school board to speak again," said the Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. "And if we sense that they're  headed off as the old board did, we will follow our conscience again and we will do what is necessary to protect our children and to keep our community involved in this conversation."

It looks like the 30 protesters who were arrested at Wake County school board meetings in 2010 will finally be going to court.

Court dates have been scheduled for four Fridays between March 2 and April 13. Prosecutors grouped the court dates for the defendants based on when they were arrested.

This means the people arrested in March and June 2010 will be in court March 2. This group includes the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP; the Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church; Tim Tyson, a Duke University historian and author; and Dante Strobino, co-founder of the self-described socialist group Raleigh FIST.

The comparison between Jim Crow racial segregation and the Wake County school board majority's plan for community-based schools was heavily stressed at Saturday's NAACP news conference.

The Rev. David Forbes, pastor of Christian Faith Baptist Church in Raleigh,  said the talk about neighborhood schools reminds him of what it was like having gone to segregated schools as a child. He said "neighborhood schools means that they use the best for them and leave the least for us."

"Before we would be slaves we would be buried in our graves and go home to be with the Lord and to be free," Forbes said to cheers. "But freedom is not free. We must roll up our sleeves, even if they are short sleeves. Roll them up. Get behind our leadership and get the job done. Wake county today, North carolina tomorrow, the United states of America next week. Let's get the job done."

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.

Venita Peyton isn't impressed by tonight's prayer vigil or by efforts of Wake County diversity policy supporters to use religion to justify their cause.

In a blog post today, Peyton, a local conservative activist, writes that the Rev. William Barber "and his cohorts still seek to influence public opinion by using God as their defense." She doesn't mention Barber, head of the state NAACP, by name but there isn't more than one "out of town church pastor" who has been threatening a lawsuit and who has been arrested twice.

"There's been no mention of forgiveness with regards to their two-time arrest. No effort at understanding. How will they defend breaking the law and tying up the resources of the Raleigh Police Department?" writes Peyton, who says Barber should give an apology.

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 Wake County school diversity fight will be the focus of today's State of Things show on WUNC.

Supporters of the old diversity policy will make up the majority of guests on today's show. Host Frank Stasio will talk with the Rev. Nancy Petty, senior pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church; Gerald Grant, author of ""Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh;" and Marie Garlock, a former Wake student who was among those arrested at the July 20 school board meeting.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST, INCLUDING SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SHOW

We're getting some more info on the people who were arrested for refusing to give up the podium at Tuesday's Wake County school board meeting.

In an article today in the Associated Baptist Press, four of the six people who were arrested are identified as members of Raleigh's Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. Pullen has been a hotbed of protest against the end of the diversity policy with the church's senior pastor, the Rev. Nancy Petty, having been arrested twice on trespassing charges at board meetings.

All three teens who were arrested are members of Pullen, including Seth Keel. It was Keel, 16, a Middle Creek High student, who launched the protest by refusing to leave the podium after his two minutes. He was soon joined at the microphone by the other five people.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST, INCLUDING THURSDAY'S LETTER TO THE EDITOR BY KEEL'S MOTHER

Duke University historian and author Tim Tyson is now doing hip-hop.

Tyson and gospel singer Mary D. Williams will meet with students Monday night at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church to help develop what organizers are calling “hip-hop infused chants” to be used at the following day’s march.

Protesters plan to march from the Raleigh Convention Center to the State Capitol before showing up at Tuesday’s Wake County school board meeting to oppose the elimination of the socioeconomic diversity policy.