Overview

""The war is still raging. And [Gene Nichol]'s still fighting."" -John GrishamNorth Carolina has, since 2013, undergone a greater political sea change than any other state. For the first time, seven years ago, state government became completely captured by a radicalized and aggressive Republican leadership determined to produce the most ultra-conservative political regime in the nation. In a remarkably brief time span, Republican lawmakers have moved successfully toward that goal. The New York Times refers to the project as ""North Carolina's pioneering work in bigotry."" Other states have begun to follow what they expressly deemed the ""North Carolina playbook.""Indecent Assembly lays out in detail, and with no small dose of passion, the agenda, purposes, impacts, and transgressions of the Republican North Carolina General Assembly since it came to dominate life in the Tar Heel State. Nichol outlines, without holding punches, the stoutest war waged against people of color and low-income citizens seen in America for a half-century. All-white Republican caucuses, dominating both houses of the General Assembly, have behaved essentially like a White People's Party, without the nomenclature. Bold steps have also been taken to diminish the equal dignity of women and an internationally famed crusade against LGBTQ+ Tar Heels has capped off what has become a state-based battle against the Fourteenth Amendment. But the Republican General Assembly has not stopped with substantive legal changes. It has attacked the fundaments of American constitutional government. In 2019, the state of North Carolina, in short, is involved in a brutal battle for its own decency. If the contest is lost here, other states will likely abandon defining cornerstones of American liberty and equality as well. North Carolina today is not presented with the mere give and take of normal politics. It struggles over its meaning as a commonwealth and its future as a democracy.The book is introduced with a foreword by Rev. William Barber, leader of the Moral Monday Movement in North Carolina and the Poor People's Campaign nationally, and Timothy Tyson, Duke University civil rights historian, activist, and author of The Blood of Emmett Till and Blood Done Sign My Name.

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Back in the 1980s, I had the privilege of serving two terms in the Mississippi House of Representatives. I was inspired to seek office because I was embarrassed that my state still had no kindergarten system. My state was in dire need of many progressive reforms. I took the oath, swore to uphold the seriously outdated constitution, and started filing bills to shake up things. None of them passed. In those days, and for decades before, the State of North Carolina was the unquestioned leader of modern reforms in The South. It was viewed by us and by legislators from other states as the model of a sensible, workable, state government that got things done and tried to take care of its more vulnerable citizens. Many times, in the middle of a debate, someone said, 'This is what they're doing in North Carolina and it's working.' Or, 'North Carolina passed this law twenty years ago.' These were powerful statements because the state's legislature was serious about education and equality. Those days are gone. In 2013, hardcore conservative Republicans won big and put together super majorities in both the House and Senate. With a likeminded leader in the Governor's office, they immediately waged war against teachers and schools, the poor, women, elections, the courts, the environment, and those with darker skin. The changes in North Carolina are shocking and depressing. Gene Nichol was either in the ring or agitating from a front row seat. He knows this sad story because he was there. The war is still raging. And he's still fighting. -John Grisham Gene Nichol has long been a clarion voice on issues of race and poverty in North Carolina. Unbeloved by the powerful and beloved by the disadvantaged, his latest book unsparingly sets forth the politics of what he calls the State legislature's 'Blueprint for the War on Democracy and Equality.' Without fear or favor, Nichol tells the story of a state once known for moderation on issues of race, but that has become ground zero in partisan extremism and the resurgence of racial recidivism in America. -Ted Shaw, Julius Chambers Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina, former Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund

Author Information

Gene R. Nichol is a law professor, editorial commentator, and author of The Faces of Poverty in North Carolina: Stories from Our Invisible Citizens (UNC Press, 2018) and a number of other books. He writes commentary for Raleigh News and Observer, Charlotte Observer, the Progressive Populist, and others. He is the Boyd Tinsley distinguished professor of law at the University of North Carolina. He was director of the UNC Poverty Center until it was closed by the UNC Board of Governors for publishing articles critical of the governor and General Assembly. Since 2015, his research has been supported by the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund. Nichol was president of the College of William & Mary (2005-2008), law dean at the University of Colorado (1988-1995), and dean at UNC from 1999-2005.

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