Stop Racism and Repression [North Carolina Political Broadsheet]

A call to action in the Tar-Heel State.

“The image of a ‘New South’, free of racist terror, is a lie.” 

This political broadsheet was issued in 1974 by the New York-based National Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression. Numerous reasons are cited for the Independence Day peaceful protest, including the recent installation of a federal ‘behavior modification’ institute. A third of all Death Row inmates, nationwide, were incarcerated in North Carolina. According to the NC State University Library, in an article about the protest;

“In 1974, the North Carolina legislature enacted a mandatory death penalty statute for all capital crimes. This removed the ability of the jury to recommend a sentence of life imprisonment, instead automatically sentencing anyone convicted of a capital crime to death. In April of that year, the statute was amended to exclude burglary and arson from the list of capital crimes, though this did not alter the sentences of anyone already on death row under the previous law, as reported by the News and Observer on July 29, 1974.”

Sources: North Carolina State University; Wisconsin Historical Society;