After the Robberies: Latino Belonging, Civil Justice, and Coalition Building in Durham, North Carolina

In October 1997, a series of violent robberies targeting Latino workers in Durham, North Carolina, exposed deep inequities in the city’s social and legal fabric. The victims, many of them recent migrants from across Latin America, faced not only economic loss and physical harm but also systemic barriers to justice. Fear of deportation, lack of Spanish-language services, and limited access to formal banking left many Latinos without safe avenues for restitution or protection. These crimes became a flashpoint that illuminated broader questions about belonging, trust in law enforcement, and the accessibility of justice for marginalized communities in the U.S. South. My paper examines how the aftermath of the 1997 robberies catalyzed one of the most important local movements for civil inclusion and access to justice in the late twentieth-century South. The 1997 robberies were not isolated criminal events; they were moments that revealed structural exclusion from the civil justice system. Latinos’ inability to safely report crimes, recover losses, or access financial and legal assistance underscored a double bind: they were visible as victims but invisible as rights-bearing residents. This moment in Durham also revealed how civil and criminal justice intersect in communities of color. Latino residents confronted not only the immediate criminal victimization of the robberies but also the broader systemic failures that criminalized their existence. In response, African American leaders in Durham, drawing from the city’s long history of Black-owned banks, civic organizations, and legal advocacy, offered institutional and moral support to Latino newcomers. Black and Latino residents collaborated on neighborhood watch programs, financial literacy workshops, and community dialogues with police, reframing safety and justice as collective, not individual, concerns. This moment of sustained coalition building demonstrates how historically marginalized groups in the South have leveraged shared experiences of exclusion to advance new models of local justice.