Series: Calling For Change

Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Carolina Justice Policy Center, addresses a crowd gathered in downtown Raleigh on June 2, 2020 to protest the death of George Floyd and violence against Black Americans.
Credit Kate Medley / For WUNC

Across the state, North Carolinians are calling for change in the wake of recent high-profile deaths of Black Americans and systemic racism across the country. WUNC reporters and producers are talking with some of the people behind the protests about their experience with race and their hopes moving forward.

Reporters: Rebecca Martinez, Mitch Northam, Laura Pellicer, Liz Schlemmer, Allison Swaim, Kamaya Truitt
Editors: Elizabeth Baier, Dave DeWitt, Amy Jeffries
Photographer: Kate Medley, Ben McKeown
Social Media Producer: Natalie Dudas-Thomas
 

Ways to Connect

"I Sleep, Eat, Live, Breathe Activism": Kerwin Pittman Advocates For Prison Reform

By • Sep 10, 2020
Kerwin Pittman, 33, of Raleigh, NC, is the founder of Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services and a field organizer with Emancipate NC.
Kate Medley / For WUNC

Kerwin Pittman is a member of the governor's new task force examining racial inequities in the criminal justice system. He is also a field organizer for Emancipate N.C. and has helped post Black Lives Matter billboards in Raleigh and Pittsboro.

Durham Artists, Activists Call For New Ways To Police The Community

By Caitlin Leggett • Sep 7, 2020
WUNC Youth Reporter Caitlin Leggett spoke with Durham-based poet Nelson White about both of their motivations to get involved with the Black Lives Matter movement this summer.
Kate Medley / For WUNC

This summer, WUNC is meeting some of the North Carolinians who are "Calling for Change" in the wake of recent high-profile killings of Black Americans.

Rev. Greg Drumwright Calls For Change In Graham, NASCAR

By • Aug 12, 2020
Greg Drumwright
Ben McKeown / For WUNC

Greg Drumwright has spent most of his life in North Carolina’s Triad region. He was raised in Burlington, attended college at North Carolina A&T and then Wake Forest, and for the past 17 years has led The Citadel Church in Greensboro.

Crystal Cavalier Keck: Racial Equity In Policing Requires Better Data Collection

By • Aug 3, 2020
Crystal Cavalier Keck stands for a portrait at her home in Mebane, N.C. on Thursday, July 30, 2020.
Ben McKeown / For WUNC

This summer, WUNC is meeting some of the North Carolinians who are "Calling for Change" in policing. Crystal Cavalier Keck is Indigenous and also of European and African descent. She is a member of the Occoneechee Band of the Saponi Nation and founder of "Missing Murdered Indigenous Coalition of North Carolina." The group runs a database and accepts reports of missing Indigenous people.

Abolish The Police To Bolster The Community, Says Raleigh Activist

By • Jul 27, 2020
Kate Medley / For WUNC

When she's not teaching English at Louisburg College, Taari Coleman can often be found on the streets of Raleigh, megaphone in hand. She is a founding organizer with NC BORN, short for North Carolina Building Our Revolution Now, a group that advocates for defunding and dismantling current law enforcement structures in the state. 

A Mother And Son Reflect On Being An Anti-Racist Family

By • Jul 20, 2020
Ronda Taylor Bullock and her nine-year-old son Zion talk about issues of racism and their involvement in the movement calling for change in the U.S. in the wake of recent killings of black people.
Kate Medley / For WUNC

Ronda Taylor Bullock co-founded "We Are," a Durham-based non-profit committed to anti-racist education. Ronda is a former Durham Public Schools teacher who focuses on teaching children of all skin colors how to talk about racism and being anti-racist.

She runs an annual summer camp, often attended by her son Zion, who is nine years old. In this installment of our series "Calling for Change," Ronda and Zion get together to ask each other some questions.