Laura Bickford
Template:TOCnestleft Laura Bickford is a Durham North Carolina activist.
"David Price Six"
On May 7 2007, six student protesters went to trial on trespassing charges in connection with a February demonstration in U.S. Rep. David Price's office. The self-proclaimed "David Price Six" Laura Bickford, Ben Carroll, Alisan Fathalizadeh, Sara Joseph, Dante Strobino and Tamara Tal demanded a meeting with Price to ask that he vote to defund the Iraq war. "After about 15 minutes it was pretty apparent we weren't going to talk to him so we sat down and refused to leave," Bickford says. A legislative aide called police and the students were handcuffed and taken to jail. They were released on their own recognizance. Chapel Hill attorney Al McSurely, who represented the students, filed a motion for necessity defense, which argued that the trespassing violation was a necessary action for the greater good. A judge dismissed the charges.[1]
Rally against rape
A march and rally took place Durham, North Carolina April 28 2007 against sexual violence and assault. The protest was called Creating a World Without Sexual Violence—National Day of Truthtelling (DOT).
The organizing DOT coalition was made up of Black Workers for Justice, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Independent Voices, Men Against Rape Culture, North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Raleigh Fight Imperialism—Stand Together, Spirit House, Southerners On New Ground (SONG) and UBUNTU.
Alexis Gumbs, a Black graduate student at Duke, read a moving open letter to the crowd in front of the Buchanan house.
The main rally was held on the steps of the Durham County Courthouse. Speakers there included Serena Sebring, UBUNTU; Monika Johnson Hostler, NCCASA; Paulina Hernandez, SONG; Tyneisha Bowens and Laura Bickford, Raleigh FIST; Shafeah M'Balia, Women’s Commission of BWFJ, and Phoenix Brangman, Dasan Ahanu and Bryan Proffitt of Men Against Rape Culture. A number of the speakers linked the issue of sexual violence to the struggle for immigrant rights and against racism, homophobia, capitalism, militarism and imperialism.[2]