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N.C. A&T Human Rights Medal Awarded To State Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls. Image courtesy nc.gov.

N.C. A&T State University has awarded its 2021 Human Rights Medal to North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls. 

The award was given to Earls on Monday at a virtual event honoring the “A&T Four,” four Black students who staged a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, which is now the site of the International Civil Rights Museum.

Earls spent 30 years as a civil rights attorney before joining the state Supreme Court as an associate justice. She also worked in the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Bill Clinton's administration.

In 2007 she founded the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a legal advocacy nonprofit where she also served as executive director. 

Earls is a Democrat who was elected to the North Carolina Supreme Courtin 2018 for an eight-year term.

The N.C A&T Human Rights Medal is awarded annually to people who have committed themselves to correcting social injustice and strive to improve the world. Previous recipients include the late civil rights leader U.S. Rep. John Lewis, and current Rep. Alma Adams, who is an A&T alumna. 

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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