NC NAACP Community Mass Meeting and Press Conference to Kick-Off Simultaneous Statewide Grassroots Voter Registration Campaign

MEDIA ADVISORY

NC NAACP Kicks Off Statewide Weekend-Long Voter Registration Campaign with Mass Meeting and Press Conference in Durham

For More Information: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II President, 919-394-8137

Mrs. Amina J. Turner, Executive Director, 919-682-4700 For Media Assistance: Ms. Sharon Coleman, Office Communication Manager,  

919-682-4700

Friday, August 24, 2012

St. Joseph AME Church

2521 Fayetteville Street, Durham, NC 27707

            DURHAM - The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP kicks off a historic weekend-long Mass Voter Registration Campaign with a Mass Meeting Friday evening, August 24, 2012, 7:00 pm at St. Joseph AME Church in Durham, NC.  Adult, Youth and College NAACP units in every corner of the state will be conducting simultaneous voter registration drives over the weekend.  Keynote speakers will include Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President of the NC NAACP and long-time civil rights activist Dr. Amos Brown. The program will begin with a news conference where national, state and local faith and civil rights leaders will answer questions about the Need to Vote in this historic election.

"Our theme is, 'If We Ever Needed to Vote...We Sure Need to Vote Now,'" says Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, president of the NC NAACP, National NAACP Board Member and Chair of the National NAACP Political Action Committee.  "The mass meeting and voter registration campaign honors the 49^th Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington.  Most of the issues that prompted the moral call for the 1963 march are still pressing.   Our voting rights are in jeopardy from right wing attacks. Economic justice, equal access to quality education, healthcare, and jobs are still very much part of the moral call for civic engagement today.  We honor the blood, sweat and tears of our forebears by mobilizing our votes like never before."

The Durham Mass Meeting will kick off the "Mass Voter Registration Campaign" across the state of North Carolina on Saturday and Sunday, August 25 and 26th.  Local NAACP branch members, partners and supporters will canvas neighborhoods, shopping centers, churches, cafes, barbershops, nightclubs and other places, registering as many North Carolinians to vote as possible. This grassroots campaign is a continuation of the yearlong efforts of the NC NAACP to organize, register and mobilize voters.

Dr. Amos Brown, a long-term civil rights activist will participate in the Durham News Conference and Mass Meeting.  Dr. Brown is the former Chair of the National NAACP Religious Affairs Committee. He was a student of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Medgar Evers, Benjamin Mays, Samuel Williams and J. Pious Barbour, to name a few.

 

"If We Ever Needed To Vote...We Sure Need To Vote Now!"

Civic Engagement Address at 2012 NAACP Convention in Houston, Texas

 

Rev. Dr. William Barber, II addresses the NAACP, July 11, 2012

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