Civitas (Art Pope's foundation) just published a blacklist of NC Moral Monday protesters.

[wildeyed]

Art Pope is NC's very own Koch brother. He is also an appointed state official. Bizarre that his group is doing this.

Here is the actual database.
http://www.nccivitas.org/moralmonday/

And some early responses:

Art Pope-funded group launches database targeting Moral Monday arrestees
http://www.southernstudies.org/2013/06/art-pope-funded-group-launches-database-targeting-.html

Civitas' database brings to mind another troubling episode of mid-20th century U.S. history: how in some Southern cities at that time the white-supremacist White Citizens' Councils (WCC) would publish in local newspapers the names of NAACP supporters and those who signed anti-segregation petitions in order to encourage retaliation against them. The WCCs, like Civitas, also had close ties to powerful government officials.

About Your Banging Blacklist: An Open Letter to the Civitas Institute
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jedediah-purdy/about-your-banging-blackl_b_3471691.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Thanks for including me in your Moral Monday Protesters database. I'm sure I speak for many of those arrested for civil disobedience protesting North Carolina's Tea Party legislature who are happy to find our name, residence, and employer are usefully listed on the Internet.

I'd like to thank your funder, Art Pope, for making this project possible and giving it that personal touch. Linking to our mug shots is a nice detail; otherwise, your readers might not be able to recognize us on the street. Also, it has that great Rogues' Gallery effect. I mean, everyone looks like a criminal in a mug shot.

You really enrich the picture by listing arrestees' "interest-group affiliations," such as NAACP, People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, and, of course, Occupy Raleigh. But maybe the best grace note is the column devoted to noting everyone whose driver's license address doesn't match their voter registration address. Could that mean rampant voter fraud? You report, we decide.

Why I joined Moral Monday
http://www.southernstudies.org/2013/06/why-i-joined-moral-monday.html

Gov. Pat McCrory (R), went even further, suggesting that the time-honored practice of nonviolent civil disobedience itself was "unacceptable." As he told WTVD, "We welcome feedback, we welcome lawful demonstrations, however, we don't welcome unlawful demonstrations, and that should not be accepted."

I wonder if McCrory would be willing to say that to the face of Rep. John Lewis or Julian Bond, civil rights veterans who were involved in the founding of the Institute for Southern Studies, where I work today?

They could likely share with McCrory a few lessons from their experience: that small protests often grow to become bigger ones; that peaceful disobedience has been one of the great engines of change in country and world; and that leaders who cavalierly dismiss the concerns of aggrieved people often find themselves on the wrong side of history.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Ok, I am all but shocked