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March To The Polls In Graham Interrupted By Police Using Pepper Spray

WUNC | By Frank Stasio,

Rusty Jacobs, Amanda Magnus

Published November 2, 2020 at 11:44 AM EST

Demonstrators in downtown Graham Saturday kneeling in honor of George Floyd, before law enforcement officers deployed pepper spray to disperse the peaceful crowd.

Law enforcement officers pepper sprayed peaceful protesters in Alamance County this weekend on the last day of early voting. The group of about 150 people were participating in a “Legacy March to the Polls” in downtown Graham that included a stop at the controversial Confederate monument there and a plan to march two blocks to an early voting site.

Host Frank Stasio talks to WUNC politics reporter Rusty Jacobs about a march to the polls in downtown Graham on Saturday that ended when police pepper sprayed peaceful protesters.

But officers from the Graham Police Department and the Alamance County Sheriff’s Department deemed the demonstration an “unlawful assembly” and deployed pepper spray in an area that included children. WUNC politics reporter Rusty Jacobs was in Graham on Saturday, and he joins host Frank Stasio to share what happened on the ground.

CORRECTION: Jacobs incorrectly reported which law enforcement officials deployed pepper spray near the courthouse in Graham on Saturday. Both Alamance County Sheriff's deputies and Graham police officers sprayed to clear protesters from the street.

Copyright 2020 North Carolina Public Radio

Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

See stories by Frank Stasio

Rusty Jacobs

Rusty Jacobs is a politics reporter for WUNC. Rusty previously worked at WUNC as a reporter and substitute host from 2001 until 2007 and now returns after a nine-year absence during which he went to law school at Carolina and then worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Wake County.

See stories by Rusty Jacobs

Amanda Magnus

Amanda Magnus grew up in Maryland and went to high school in Baltimore. She became interested in radio after an elective course in the NYU journalism department. She got her start at Sirius XM Satellite Radio, but she knew public radio was for her when she interned at WNYC. She later moved to Madison, where she worked at Wisconsin Public Radio for six years. In her time there, she helped create an afternoon drive news magazine show, called Central Time. She also produced several series, including one on Native American life in Wisconsin. She spends her free time running, hiking, and roller skating. She also loves scary movies.

See stories by Amanda Magnus