WS Chronicle

In photo: N.C. Sen. Earline Parmon, Forsyth County Democrat, 32nd District

Forsyth County Democrat announced plans Wednesday

Earline Parmon announced Wednesday, Jan. 21 that she would give up her N.C. Senate seat. She said Wednesday night that she will join U.S. Rep. Alma Adams as her director of outreach and the resignation is effective Wednesday, Jan. 28.

During an interview last week, the 71-year-old Democrat did not wish to disclose her future plans. She has been a community activist, educator or an elected official for virtually her entire life. She said she will continue to wear those hats, even without an official title.

“I’m still as close as a telephone call or email. I will be right here in the community – in Winston-Salem or Greensboro, everyday,” she said. “I think I’m going to be more available and be able to sit down and meet with more people now than when I was in Raleigh four days a week.”

In 2012, Parmon became the first African-American woman from Forsyth County elected to the N.C. Senate, where she most notably sponsored legislation that kick-started the Silver Alert system for missing senior citizens and measures that have helped improve the state’s high school graduation rate. She was re-elected to her second term just last November.

She represented the 72nd District in the N.C. House for 10 years before ascending to the Senate. Before that, she served on the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners for 12 years. Parmon founded the now defunct LIFT Academy, a charter school that is credited with graduating and seeing off to college many youth who had been written off by the public school system.

After 25 years as a public servant, Parmon, a mother and grandmother who lost her husband of many years, Albert, last July, said she thought long and hard before deciding to resign, recognizing that residents had come to depend on her to speak up about issues they cared about.

Earline Parmon, 71, said she will join U.S. Rep. Alma Adams’ office.

U.S. Rep. Alma Adams as her director of outreach.

will join U.S. Rep. Alma Adams as her director of outreach.

will join U.S. Rep. Alma Adams as her director of outreach.

Parmon has been vocal about the current climate in Raleigh. Republicans have had a majority in the General Assembly for several years, and in 2012, Republican Pat McCrory was elected governor, giving the GOP carte blanche.

A slew of controversial bills have been passed, including ones that will require voters to show IDs at polls and block hundreds of thousands of indigent residents from receiving federal Medicaid.

“I will miss some aspects of (working in Raleigh), but I won’t miss the current environment in which it has been operating in,” she said. “I will miss the fact that I was able to draft and enact legislation that made an impact and a difference for the people of North Carolina.”

She said her experiences as an elected official and the trust residents placed in her is humbling.

“Certainly, when people trust you enough to give you their vote and to be that voice for them, to stand up for them, and to advocate for them, you can’t ask for more than that,” Parmon said.

The Forsyth County Democratic Committee will elect someone to finish Parmon’s current term, which ends in January 2016. She said she would like to be succeeded by someone who is a strong advocate and voice for the people of the district.

“Someone who will be able to meet with people and represent all the people of the district, regardless of their political affiliation or any other differences,” she said. “Someone who is going to stand up to make sure our voting rights are not further eroded, that education in the state is progressive and that we take care of our elderly people.”