U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan wants the U.S. Treasury to create a commemorative coin to honor the 50th anniversary of the Woolworth’s civil rights sit-ins in Greensboro.

On Feb. 1, 1960, four students from N.C. A&T University sat at the whites-only lunch counter in downtown Greensboro and refused to leave, Barb Barrett reports. The protest sparked a movement throughout the South.

Hagan, a Democrat from Greensboro, plans to introduce legislation ordering the treasury to mint 1,000 U.S. $1 coins to commemorate the anniversary of the sit-ins. The bill would be deficit-neutral, her office said, and would cost the public $11 per coin.

The design would be selected by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, which is being built at the site of the Woolworth’s counter in Greensboro.

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, will take the lead in sponsoring the bill in the House. Miller’s district, which stretches into parts of Greensboro, includes the museum site.

Correction: Post previously misstated how many years are between 2009 and 1960. Dome regrets the error. 

A new public lands bill includes a provision to save historic landmarks.

President Obama signed the bill into law Monday. It includes a provision from U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, to preserve landmarks around the country. 

Miller and Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio have pushed a preservation bill for the past year. It would have put congressional authority behind two existing programs, Save America's Treasures and Preserve America.

After the bill was blocked in the Senate, its provisions were added to the public lands bill.

The provision authorizes $300 million during the next four years for two grants programs: One on preserving historic buildings, the other for tourism and education.

In North Carolina, a Save America's Treasures grant is already being used to preserve the Woolworth building that was home of the Greensboro sit-in. (N&O)

Roy Cooper will intervene in a Supreme Court case.

The attorney general told a sympathetic crowd of civil rights and social justice advocates Wednesday that he will ask the justices to preserve a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that requires the federal government approve state election law changes.

A municipal utility in Texas is fighting the provision. But Cooper said that federal oversight helps ensure racial bias does not taint elections.

"This is important to make sure that we make the electoral process fair," Cooper said in an interview. "We've entered into the lawsuit because it's a matter of critical importance."

Attorneys general in New York, California, Mississippi, Arizona and Louisiana have joined Cooper's friend-of-the-court brief. 

The personal appearance to announce a court filing is unusual. Cooper is considering a run for U.S. Senate in 2010. (N&O)

Bea Perry was ready for the voters.

Her hood pulled up over her hair, she stood beneath a tent at the Chavis Center in Southeast Raleigh, ready to help voters on behalf of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, a civil rights group. Nearby boxes of Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme and boxes of coffee were stacked on a table.

Perry said turnout was good, though she expected many already cast their ballots during early voting. She was here then, too, and saw about a 1,000 a day, more than double the number from 2004.

She would know. The 77-year-old retired schoolteacher has worked every election here for the RWCA since 1961, helping voters and getting out the word on its endorsements. She cited her experience voting in the days before the 1965 Civil Rights Act outlawed literacy tests as a catalyst.

"When I got ready to vote when I was 18 years of age, I had to recite the preamble to the Constitution to a man who couldn't even read it," she said. "Now, my nephew is the mayor."

How long did it take to memorize the preamble?

"About 15 minutes," she replied. "I already knew it, and I still do."

Could she say it now? She took a long stare at the young white reporter before her before speaking.

"I could. But I'm not. The days of testing are over."

Lawson Stallings first met Jesse Helms by accident.

A few years ago, the Rolesville online auto parts salesman found himself in the building where Helms' office was then located. A longtime fan, he stopped in the office. 

"I decided to go in and see if he was there," he said. "Sure enough, he welcomed me like he'd known me his whole life."

Stallings said he respected Helms' views on the U.S. constitution and states rights. He says opponents unfairly maligned the senator for opposing federal civil rights bills.

"He was called a racist and a big and a homophobe," he said. "But I think it was just a convenient way to attack him. He was no more racist than you or I, but unfortunately he did give people some ammunition from time to time."

He said Helms' views on race were informed by his approach to states rights.

"He was a constitutionalist," he said. "There are very few of them around anymore." 

Richard Moore, a Democratic candidate for governor, has a new tv ad questioning whether Beverly Perdue can be trusted because of a vote she cast in the legislature in 1987, Mark Johnson reports.

What the ad says: “Some decisions say a lot about character. Like the time Bev Perdue voted against tougher laws to investigate hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan. It’s true. Perdue was one of only two Democrats to vote against Dan Blue’s law that gave the SBI more powers to investigate the KKK. A law supported by most Republicans and the entire black legislative caucus. Is Bev Perdue a Democrat we can trust?”

The background: As a member of the N.C. House of Representatives, Perdue voted against a bill that authorized the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate possible hate crimes without being called into the case by local law enforcement. Before the bill became law, the SBI entered such a case only at the request of police or sheriffs’ departments.

Perdue was one of two Democrats in the legislature to oppose the bill. It passed the Senate unanimously. In the House, there were seven no votes: five Republicans, Perdue and Rep. Gerald Anderson, another Democrat.

Perdue’s campaign said she did not recall the vote and that, given the context of other votes she cast, it must be a “misvote.” She would have been voting against her party leadership, which would have been unusual for a freshman. Legislators who push the wrong button when voting can, and often do, ask to have their vote corrected afterward.

Perdue spokesman David Kochman said other votes at the same time better reflect her record on civil rights, such as voting in favor of making Martin Luther King Day a paid state holiday.

Otherwise, the campaign contends, she would not have gained the endorsements she has received from black leaders such as former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt.

Is the ad accurate? Yes.

Beverly Perdue's campaign says Richard Moore has turned to "race-baiting" with his latest ad in the Democratic primary for governor.

"Richard Moore's newest ad represents the worst kind of race-baiting in politics," Perdue said in a statement. "It's no better than the race-baiting tactics of Jesse Helms and no better than the new ad by the Republican Party, and it's really sad that Richard Moore would stoop to this level."

Perdue said in the statement that she does not recall the vote cited in Moore's ad, but said it "clearly is a mis-vote."

She cited three other votes she made that year that demonstrate her "strong civil rights record." They are:

H39 – A vote to make the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday a paid holiday for state employees

H226 – A vote to prohibit any person from interfering with another person’s civil rights

H589 – A bill regarding redrawn court districts to allow more black judges

The site of a sit-in at a Durham ice cream shop will get the state's fourth highway marker dedicated to the civil rights movement.

The June 23, 1957, sit-in of the Royal Ice Cream Co. didn't attract the attention of a similar protest three years later at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro.

But it passed muster with a panel if nine history professors.

In 2002, a state committee declared that the Durham sit-in didn't have enough statewide historical significance to receive a marker.

Local activists have been lobbying for a marker for years. (N&O)