A North Carolina Baptist pastor said July 27 she does not understand why she was arrested July 20 for simply trying to attend a public meeting of a school board whose policy on integration she had earlier been arrested for protesting.

Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, and three others were first arrested on second-degree-trespassing charges June 15 after refusing to give up the podium at a meeting of the Wake County Board of Education.

The four, which also included the president of the North Carolina NAACP, used civil disobedience to protest recent votes by the board to scrap the district’s student-diversity policy. Critics say the reversal will lead to de facto re-segregation of the county’s schools.

The four said they were then informed by letter they were banned from future school board meetings unless they submitted written assurance in advance they would not be disruptive.

Petty and NAACP head William Barber ignored the letter and were arrested a second time July 20 in a parking lot as they tried to enter the meeting. Later another 16 people were arrested for disrupting the meeting. They were charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.

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Source: Associated Baptist Press | Bob Allen