UNC Civil Rights Center

Carolina Peace Center founder Faisal R. Khan was honored to speak at a rally held on August 1, 2017 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Civil Rights Center regarding a proposal that would ban litigation for the minorities by the center. The committee approved the motion today after the rally to send the proposal to the Board of Governors to make the decision next month.

We are becoming a nation of bans. Nation that was founded on the principles of constitution which is to protect individual rights is now under threat at many levels. The civil rights movement that included civil rights litigation that paved the way for African-American community to fight for their rights and equality in this country.

A litigation ban for the civil rights center, which receives no state funding is not acceptable. The Center for Civil Rights provides valuable litigation training to law school students and the capacity to represent poor and minority clients in court.

The ban is a direct insult to the legacy of civil rights attorney Julius Chambers, an African-American whose home, office and car were bombed as he pursued school desegregation cases in the 1960s and 1970s. It has taken on cases involving school segregation, equal education rights and a landfill in a poor community.

Furthermore, the ban is increasingly alarming because it affects the freedom and the integrity of our educational system. Center for civil rights is a unique place which provides quality education for law students and an opportunity for the minorities to receive legal assistance in their struggles to attain justice.

I am asking Anna Nelson, chair of the committee that will meet today to consider a litigation ban for the center Not to approve the ban. It is time that we as a nation come together and say no to bans. Ban the bans. Universities and colleges are places for students to learn and to have the opportunity to expand in their respective fields. No committee or external factors should affect the freedom of education and its ability to assist or help the underprivileged or the communities that are in need of help.

Ban all the bans. If there needs to be a ban then ban inequality, ban racism, ban Islamophobia, ban xenophobia, ban hate, there needs to be a ban on groups and institutions that are violating our rights and undermining our freedom. Ban the entities that are threatening our constitutional rights and civil liberties. I ask everyone to stand up and fight for your civil rights.

Read about it in the media

Rally – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Civil Rights Center