North Carolina Legislature Research Articles

Forgotten Legacy: William McKinley, George Henry White, and the Struggle for Black Equality

To secure his party's nomination in 1896, William McKinley courted Black Republicans. George Henry White, a Black attorney elected to Congress from North Carolina that same year, was an ardent McKinley supporter. Benjamin R. Justesen, the author of a 2001 biography of White, documents the fitful political partnership between McKinley and the congressman. Justesen argues, first, that biographers of McKinley have minimized his commitment to African American political equality; and second, that White and McKinley orchestrated the largest number of Black appointments to federal positions of any president. (Despite civil service reforms a decade earlier, both parties still expected their presidents to reward loyalists.) Justesen argues that “McKinley's role as a sincere friend and benefactor of African Americans may be among the best-kept secrets of American political history” (p. 2). White came to office at a precarious moment for Black rights. Raised on his free family's turpentine farm, he earned a law degree at Howard University and served in the North Carolina legislature before running for Congress. An erudite speaker, he stumped for McKinley during the 1896 campaign. Yet the importance of Black votes to Republican candidates was waning. Southern states were flagrantly stripping African Americans of the franchise. During White's first term, white supremacists carried out a violent coup in Wilmington, North Carolina, to oust Black officeholders. In 1900 the state's voters approved an amendment to the state constitution to disfranchise Black residents. White used his prominence in Congress to implore his fellow Republicans to stop this violation of the Fifteenth Amendment.

ATA2023Annual Conference & ExpoMarch 4–6, 2023San Antonio, Texas

ATA2023Annual Conference & ExpoMarch 4–6, 2023San Antonio, Texas

Provision of Patient Care Services and Goals for Expansion in Community and Ambulatory Care Pharmacies in Southeastern North Carolina.

In February 2022, the North Carolina legislature expanded pharmacist dispensing authority without a prescription. We conducted a cross-sectional interview of currently licensed pharmacy managers of outpatient pharmacies located in five counties in southeastern North Carolina. Pharmacy managers were eligible to participate if their pharmacy was either a community pharmacy, clinic-based pharmacy, or outpatient health system pharmacy. Forty-four of 116 eligible pharmacy managers participated (38% response rate). The most common services offered by pharmacies included medication synchronization services (93.2%), on-site immunizations (90.9%), and refill reminders (88.6%). The least common services offered include INR screens (0%), A1c screens (7%), and 'incident-to' billing services associated with CPT codes: annual wellness visits (0%), chronic care management (0%), transitional care management (0%), and remote patient monitoring (2.4%). The services that pharmacy managers wanted to learn more about through continuing education included: oral/transdermal contraceptives (60.5%), administration of long-acting injectables (LAIs) (36.8%), and dispensing of HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) (23.7%).

A Differences-in-Differences Analysis of the Impact of the North Carolina Fixed Tuition Program on College Costs

ABSTRACT In 2016, the North Carolina legislature implemented the North Carolina Fixed Tuition Program. This policy ensures that, once enrolled, an undergraduate student’s tuition rate at any of the state’s four-year public colleges will not increase for eight consecutive semesters of enrollment. While touted as an effort to increase affordability by helping students financially plan for college, prior research has found that these policies prompt institutions to raise the cost of attendance for undergraduate students. This study expands previous work on institutional pricing responses to tuition guarantee programs by both extending inquiry to another state context and by examining changes to revenue streams not included in prior work. Using differences-in-differences and event study approaches, I found that institutions in North Carolina increased in- and out-of-state graduate tuition rates and out-of-state undergraduate tuition rates in the wake of the Fixed Tuition Program.

Jumping Out of a Perfectly Good Airplane

I’m a late bloomer. I married at 37 and had children at 39 and 41. I completed campaign school at 52 and won my first election 18 months later. At 60, I defeated an incumbent 20 years my junior in a tight race for the state House of Representative. I was 3 weeks shy of 61 when I was sworn in as the first advanced practice registered nurse elected to the North Carolina legislature.

Perceived barriers and facilitators to participating in the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program: a mixed-methods examination considering investment effectiveness.

The North Carolina Legislature appropriated funds in 2016-2019 for the Healthy Food Small Retailer Program (HFSRP), providing small retailers located in food deserts with equipment to stock nutrient-dense foods and beverages. The study aimed to: (1) examine factors facilitating and constraining implementation of, and participation in, the HFSRP from the perspective of storeowners and (2) measure and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of investment in the HFSRP. The current analysis uses both qualitative and quantitative assessments of storeowner perceptions and store outcomes, as well as two innovative measures of policy investment effectiveness. Qualitative semi-structured interviews and descriptive quantitative approaches, including monthly financial reports and activity forms, and end-of-programme evaluations were collected from participating HFSRP storeowners. Eight corner stores in North Carolina that participated in the two cohorts (2016-2018; 2017-2019) of the HFSRP. Owners of corner stores participating in the HFSRP. All storeowners reported that the HFSRP benefitted their stores. In addition, the HFSRP had a positive impact on sales across each category of healthy food products. Storeowners reported that benefits would be enhanced with adjustments to programme administration and support. Specific suggestions included additional information regarding which healthy foods and beverages to stock; inventory management; handling of perishable produce; product display; modified reporting requirements and a more efficient process of delivering and maintaining equipment. All storeowners reported several benefits of the HFSRP and would recommend that other storeowners participate. The barriers and challenges they reported inform potential approaches to ensuring success and sustainability of the HFSRP and similar initiatives underway in other jurisdictions.

Progress, Not Perfection

As I write this column just before Thanksgiving 2019, the North Carolina legislature has adjourned for 60 days after 10 grueling months highlighted by a summer budget veto and a controversial fall veto override (viral video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_07x2ZgEOnY). This single action by the House Speaker fractured many bipartisan relationships and tested my determination to choose policy over politics. By the time you read this, the legislature will be back in full swing, and I’ll be campaigning for a 4th term. Department Editor Gale Adcock, MSN, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, is a state legislator in North Carolina and is employed by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC. She can be reached at [email protected]

Optimal Legislative County Clustering in North Carolina

North Carolina’s constitution requires that state legislative districts should not split counties. However, counties must be split to comply with the “one person, one vote” mandate of the U.S. Supreme Court. Given that counties must be split, the North Carolina legislature and the courts have provided guidelines that seek to reduce counties split across districts while also complying with the “one person, one vote” criterion. Under these guidelines, the counties are separated into clusters; each cluster contains a specified number of districts and that are drawn independent from other clusters. The primary goal of this work is to develop, present, and publicly release an algorithm to optimally cluster counties according to the guidelines set by the court in 2015. We use this tool to investigate the optimality and uniqueness of the enacted clusters under the 2017 redistricting process. We verify that the enacted clusters are optimal, but find other optimal choices. We emphasize that the tool we provide lists all possible optimal county clusterings. We also explore the stability of clustering under changing statewide populations and project what the county clusters may look like in the next redistricting cycle beginning in 2020/2021. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Longevity, climate sensitivity, and conservation status of wetland trees at Black River, North Carolina

Bald cypress trees over 2,000-years old have been discovered in the forested wetlands along Black River using dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating. The oldest bald cypress yet documented is at least 2,624-years old, making Taxodium distichum the oldest-known wetland tree species, the oldest living trees in eastern North America, and the fifth oldest known non-clonal tree species on earth. The annual ring-width chronology developed from the ancient Black River bald cypress trees is positively correlated with growing season precipitation totals over the southeastern United States and with atmospheric circulation over the Northern Hemisphere, providing the longest exactly-dated climate proxy yet developed in eastern North America. The Nature Conservancy owns 6,400 ha in their Black River Preserve and the North Carolina legislature is considering establishment of a Black River State Park, but ancient forested wetlands are found along most of this 106 km stream and remain threatened by logging, water pollution, and sea level rise.

Aim high, shoot often.

: The first nurse practitioner serving in the North Carolina legislature reflects on decades of advocacy that helped prepare her for election.

Is Lobby Day Worthwhile?

Is Lobby Day Worthwhile?

Baseline Assessment of a Healthy Corner Store Initiative: Associations between Food Store Environments, Shopping Patterns, Customer Purchases, and Dietary Intake in Eastern North Carolina.

In 2016, the North Carolina (NC) Legislature allocated $250,000 to the NC Department of Agriculture, to identify and equip small food retailers to stock healthier foods and beverages in eastern NC food deserts (the NC Healthy Food Small Retailer Program, HFSRP). The purpose of this study was to examine associations between food store environments, shopping patterns, customer purchases, and dietary consumption among corner store customers. We surveyed 479 customers in 16 corner stores regarding demographics, food purchased, shopping patterns, and self-reported fruit, vegetable, and soda consumption. We objectively assessed fruit and vegetable consumption using a non-invasive reflection spectroscopy device to measure skin carotenoids. We examined associations between variables of interest, using Pearson’s correlation coefficients and adjusted linear regression analyses. A majority (66%) of participants were African American, with a mean age of 43 years, and a mean body mass index (BMI) of 30.0 kg/m2. There were no significant associations between the healthfulness of food store offerings, customer purchases, or dietary consumption. Participants who said they had purchased fruits and vegetables at the store previously reported higher produce intake (5.70 (4.29) vs. 4.60 (3.28) servings per day, p = 0.021) versus those who had not previously purchased fresh produce. The NC Legislature has allocated another $250,000 to the HFSRP for the 2018 fiscal year. Thus, evaluation results will be important to inform future healthy corner store policies and initiatives.

When Laws Solve Problems that Do Not Exist: Transgender Rights in the Nation’s Schools

When Laws Solve Problems that Do Not Exist:Transgender Rights in the Nation’s Schools Josh Corbat Time and again research has shown us that schools in which students feel safe and included promote academic achievement and overall student health (see, for example, Greytak, Kosciw, Villenas, & Giga, 2016; Michael, Merlo, Basch, Wentzel, & Wechsler, 2015). Parent networks, community organizations, and school boards nationwide continuously espouse one common goal: to create the safe environments students deserve and to promote the academic, physical, and mental well-being of all members of our educational communities. Although this is certainly an admirable goal, it is far from a reality. Michael and colleagues (2015) have shown, in a review of the pertinent literature, that school policies and directives must better align with this goal in order to establish and maintain safe school environments. For members of our communities that are outside the mainstream culture and outside the now defunct gender dichotomy, these efforts are particularly important. In a report conducted and published by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) nearly all (87%) transgender students have reported being verbally harassed at school and over half (53%) have been physically assaulted because of their gender expression (Greytak et al., 2009). It is an undeniable shame, then, that battles—legal and moral—are still waged in many local communities and states to undermine the safety of this targeted group of students. North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (HB2, also known as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act) was passed in March of 2016 and immediately made national headlines. Two key components of HB2 were forcefully met with opposition by a variety of civil rights groups. The law stipulates, based on biological sex, which bathroom individuals must use in public buildings. Additionally, it overturns existing legislation across the state and bars any future legislation that protects the rights of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Simply put, HB2 made discrimination against the LGBT community legal in North Carolina. HB2 also created a new challenge specifically for transgender women and men in a legislative move the Washington Post called a “cunning trick” (Guo, 2016). Modified from a bill passed in Tennessee designed to protect interstate commerce from capricious local legislation, HB2 was written to ensure that businesses could operate statewide without being burdened by local ordinances and laws that prescribe how they can treat members of the LGBT community. This, combined with verbiage lifted from a variety of model bills in the religious freedom strand of legislation (such as Indiana’s 2015 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, one of several state laws modeled on the federal act of the same name signed into law in 1993 by President Bill Clinton), makes HB2 a potent affront to forward-thinking policies nationwide. This rhetorical “trick” employed by HB2 and a variety of similar policies allows conservative lawmakers and special interest groups to hide behind trade and economic issues—as well as religious “rights” in some cases—in defending these discriminatory pieces of legislation, a move that has proved successful in the past (Guo, 2016). The success of the conservatives in these cases is, of course, a setback to the movement for LGBT rights. [End Page 85] Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits any form of sex-based discrimination in any federally funded educational programs or activities. The Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students published jointly by the Departments of Justice and Education states, in no uncertain language, that these protections extend to transgender students in our nation’s schools (Lhamon & Gupta, 2016). HB2 clearly violates this policy, and also disregards the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law. The Dear Colleague letter was published a few months after the passage of HB2, raising questions about whether the North Carolina legislature would have taken this bold step in the face of such a stark proclamation. Attempts by the Republican supermajority in the North Carolina legislature to defend the law in court, as well as the earmarking of half a million dollars in North Carolina’s emergency fund for the future costs of defending the bill, make...

Bad Girls at Samarcand: Sexuality and Sterilization in a Southern Juvenile Reformatory by Karin L. Zipf

Reviewed by: Bad Girls at Samarcand: Sexuality and Sterilization in a Southern Juvenile Reformatory by Karin L. Zipf Rebecca Kluchin Bad Girls at Samarcand: Sexuality and Sterilization in a Southern Juvenile Reformatory. By Karin L. Zipf. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2016. xii + 242 pp. Cloth $39.95. North Carolina’s sterilization program became national news in 2010 when the legislature voted to offer reparations to victims of the state’s eugenic sterilization program. In 2014, the state began making payments of $20,000 each to qualifying individuals, the majority of whom were sterilized in the post–World War II era. Scholars, journalists, and politicians have dissected North Carolina’s postwar sterilization program, focusing in particular on its efforts to reduce welfare costs by rendering poor black women infertile. Karin Zipf, however, starts her story of sterilization and eugenics in the state earlier, in the late 1910s, when Victorian-era reformers successfully pressed state legislators to establish [End Page 287] institutions for “fallen” girls, who they believed could be redeemed through state intervention. Of course, in the era of Jim Crow, the opportunity for redemption existed only for white women; reformers did not invest in “wayward” black girls whom they deemed unworthy of public support. The North Carolina legislature created Samarcand Manor in 1917 to rehabilitate white adolescent girls, a process steeped in white supremacy. Reformers believed that all white girls embodied southern womanhood, even if they had strayed from its central tenets of piety and gentility. The state invested in the rehabilitation and training of white women regardless of background as part of its efforts to ensure white dominance. In 1931, a fire set by residents at Samarcand destroyed two buildings on the property and led to the arrest of sixteen girls for the crime of arson, then a death penalty offense in North Carolina. Their trial proved a catalyst for major changes in North Carolina’s handling of delinquent white girls as it intersected with the rise of eugenics and the influence of mental hygienists—social workers who embraced and practiced eugenics. In the wake of the trial, which concluded with the judge sentencing twelve of the girls to five years in prison (they served only one), mental hygienists assumed control of Samarcand and other state institutions. Applying “scientific” techniques to juvenile reform, they implemented a classification system based upon eugenic constructs and measured by IQ tests. Using IQ scores, inmates’ sexual history, and the presence or absence of venereal disease (believed to be a symptom of lack of reproductive fitness), mental hygienists diagnosed, treated, and paroled inmates in an orderly, “scientific” manner. Institutional policy encouraged sterilization for all girls with IQ scores of sixty-five and below upon release; between 1929 and 1950, nearly three hundred Samarcand residents underwent sterilization (131). Like Victorian reformers, mental hygienists continued to infuse their approach to juvenile reform with white supremacy, but unlike their predecessors, who believed all white girls embodied the possibility of reform, “modern” reformers believed many girls were genetically unable to be reformed and as such, the state held a responsibility to control their reproduction in order to preserve white supremacy. Poor, “unfit” girls could drag down the white race, diluting its bloodlines and causing social instability unless their “destructive” behavior could be neutralized. Sterilization offered a solution to this problem, and while the North Carolina reformers who assumed control of Samarcand ended the practice of indefinite sentences and vicious whippings, they replaced these methods of control with a surgical one that had an equally destructive effect on the lives of its victims. Zipf is an expert storyteller and a first-rate scholar. She creatively employs a range of sources to tell the story of juvenile reform and eugenics in North [End Page 288] Carolina before 1950 and presents humane, complicated profiles of the main actors in her narrative. Zipf is equally attentive to reformers, politicians, judges, and inmates. She spends a chapter recounting horrible stories of abuse towards Samarcand residents under the leadership of superintendent Agnes MacNaughton, but reminds the reader that MacNaughton remained Victorian in her approach to juvenile reform, always believing in the ability of her charges to change. In another chapter...

Toilets, Transgenders, and Property Rights

The North Carolina legislature passed a law that prohibits transgender individuals from using certain public toilets. The legislation has been controversial. Some entertainers have stated they will not hold concerts in North Carolina until the law is repealed. Some corporations have been critical of the law, and at least one corporation has decided not to open a facility in North Carolina because of the law. This article examines the issue of the use of public toilets by transgenders and applies logic and ethical theory to arrive at a resolution of the problem that does not involve the violation of anyone’s rights.

Some Thoughts on Toilets, Transgenders, and the LGBT 'Community'

The North Carolina legislature passed a law that prohibits transgender individuals from using certain public toilets. The legislation has been controversial. Some entertainers have stated they will not hold concerts in North Carolina until the law is repealed. Some corporations have been critical of the law, and at least one corporation has decided not to open a facility in North Carolina because of the law. This article examines the issue of the use of public toilets by transgenders and applies logic and ethical theory to arrive at a resolution of the problem that does not involve the violation of anyone’s rights.

A War in Black and White: The Cartoons of Norman Ethre Jennett & the North Carolina Election of 1898

“Simmons, Aycock, and Daniels used their influence, oratorial skills, and the press to create a rape scare, demonize and humiliate black men and women, spread a violent white supremacist ideology, and reclaim the North Carolina Legislature for the Democratic Party.”

The fire of freedom: Abraham Galloway and the slaves' Civil War

Abraham H. Galloway (1837-70) was a fiery young slave rebel, radical abolitionist, and Union spy who rose out of bondage to become one of the most significant and stirring black leaders in the South during the Civil War. Throughout his brief, mercurial life, Galloway fought against slavery and injustice. He risked his life behind enemy lines, recruited black soldiers for the North, and fought racism in the Union army's ranks. He also stood at the forefront of an African American political movement that flourished in the Union-occupied parts of North Carolina, even leading a historic delegation of black southerners to the White House to meet with President Lincoln and to demand the full rights of citizenship. He later became one of the first black men elected to the North Carolina legislature. Long hidden from history, story reveals a war unfamiliar to most of us. As David Cecelski writes, Galloway's Civil War was a slave insurgency, a war of liberation that was the culmination of generations of perseverance and faith. This riveting portrait illuminates life and deepens our insight into the Civil War and Reconstruction as experienced by African Americans in the South.

Summit Discusses Public Health Implications of Fracking

Summit Discusses Public Health Implications of Fracking

Do International Freedom of Association Standards Apply to Public Sector Labor Relations in the United States?

Excerpt] After November 2010 elections in the United States, human rights aspects of labor policy suddenly emerged at sub-federal levels. Elections in many states brought a sharp turn to conservative Republican rule. In this new climate, conflicts over workers’ rights took shape not at the ozone layer of high international policy, but at the oozing landfill level of local labor politics. Governors and legislatures in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, and other states moved to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights, blaming their wages and benefits for budget shortfalls. A vindictive North Carolina legislature made it unlawful for public school teachers voluntarily to contribute to their union’s legislative action fund through paycheck deductions (in January 2012 a state court issued an injunction blocking the North Carolina law, saying that singling out trade unions for such a prohibition violated the state constitution’s guarantee of freedom of association). The labor rights crisis provoked by state-level anti-union measures led to heightened awareness of international labor standards. In Wisconsin and Ohio in particular, and to a smaller degree in other states, Republicans’ anti-union moves galvanized trade unionists and their supporters into marches, occupations, and other forms of mass protest with slogans such as “workers’ rights are human rights” and “collective bargaining is a human right.” In Ohio, the labor movement and its allies overturned the anti-collective bargaining law in a public referendum. In Wisconsin, the law’s passage led to a movement to recall the Republican governor.