FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
23 April 2013
For More Information: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, President, 919-394-8137
Mrs. Amina J. Turner, Executive Director, 919-682-4700
Atty. Jamie Phillips, Public Policy Coordinator, 919-682-4700
Statement by the North Carolina NAACP
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President
NC General Assembly Press Room, Raleigh, NC
April 22, 2013 10:00 am
Joined by a group of twenty diverse clergy and theologians
The voter suppression bill, House Bill 589, disguised as voter photo ID, will be on the NC House of Representative floor for debate on Wednesday, April 24 at 2:00 PM. All are encouraged to attend and oppose the legislation.
"We hold it to be self-evident that all persons are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, the enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor, and the pursuit of happiness. All political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government of right originates from the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole." - The North Carolina Stat
e Constitution
Some of our best answers in history come from raising the right questions:
"Who can be patient in such extremes?" Shakespeare
"What happens to a dream deferred?" Langston Hughes
"When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25
"What doth the Lord require but to do justice love mercy and walk humbly before God?"
Micah 6:8
The questions above must be raised in North Carolina now. Because how we answer and respond may determine what kind of state and country we are in the future. Early this year, thousands of people came to Raleigh and asked as citizens for this new legislature to focus on an agenda to move us forward in speech and in writing. We, like the long leaf pine, extended our desire to work together and debate in good faith on what should be the real and major focus of justice focused public policy:
- Economic sustainability with a focus on jobs and ending poverty;
- Educational equality;
- Healthcare for all;
- Fairness in the criminal justice system; and
- Voting rights
That was rejected and instead we find ourselves in a time in North Carolina that from the Governor's desk and the Speaker and Senate Pro Tem's gavels in this General Assembly, we are experiencing the agenda of extreme, cruel and unusual policies. Policies being passed that will have devastating impacts on those in our state who are hurting and will set back the history of progress in our state. Dreams are being deferred. The least of these are being ignored! And the moral call for justice, mercy, and humility is being torn apart.
Already, on July 1, 2013, three days before Independence Day, over 170,000 out of work North Carolinians will be cut off from their unemployment insurance, and more jobless people are targeted in the months to come. The extremists rejected $700 million from the U.S. Government, based on political petulance.
On January 1, 2014, over 500,000 North Carolinians will wake up without health insurance, because the extremists rejected U.S. Government funds that would pay 100% of the bill for the next 3 years and 90% for the next 10 years, based on petty ideological politics.
While the extremists lower taxes for a few families, the rich and big corporations, they raise taxes on 900,000 poor and working people by reducing earned income tax credits that give more take home money for working families.
Although the constitution says that voting is a right and must be free, fair and unabridged and the Speaker of the NC House of Representatives said there was no problem with voter fraud on national TV, he could not control the extremists' efforts to place roadblocks on the path to the polls for people they are targeting with their mean-spirited policies. They plan to vote on their new "poll tax" plan this week--disguised as voter photo ID. All objective observers say their plans, which include reducing early voting, banning Sunday voting, ending same day registration, and requiring a photo ID, are a clear attack on students, minorities and the elderly.
These are extreme policies that defer dreams, hinder progress and undermine justice. It's as though the Governor, Speaker of the House, President Pro Tem and their team have decided to be the George Wallace's of the 21st Century engaging in interposition and nullification and standing the door of progress. They are employing a new white southern strategy here in North Carolina rather build fusion politics that responds to our better angels.
Think about the timing of these bills placement on the calendar. They filed and intend to pass a bill that crucifies voting rights, voting opportunity and the positive elections laws during the holy season of Easter - when 48 years ago blacks, whites, Latinos, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Democrats and Republicans were marching together to expand voting rights.
Last week, on the anniversary of the founding of SNCC (Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee), the writing of the Dr. Martin Luther King's letter from the Birmingham jail, and as the nation was unifying in response to the horrifying terrorist bombing in Boston, this legislature acted as though they had blinders to events around them and no sense of history. Drunk with the arrogance of power, they pushed through a regressive, divisive and unconstitutional voter suppression poll tax, disguised as voter photo ID, that will be discriminatory based on race and class with its impact on citizens of this state and in its implementation. In other words, they want to make it harder for people to vote. Arrogantly they defied the cries of those whose ancestors bled and died to obtain the sacred right to vote.
According to the legislative Calendar and the proposed budget, they are not through yet and plan to do more. This leadership has had a propensity to pass laws that the courts of our state have later ruled unconstitutional. They are determined to push its extreme race-based and class-based agenda forward. No real debate and no concern for the moral call for justice and fairness. No regard for how it will affect our future. Instead, we are seeing the arrogance of power that corrupts and undermines the true meaning of democracy - a vision to only use power to do what is best for the good of the whole.
And so we are at a moral crossroads. Join us as we call our people to prayer. Join us to call the general assembly to reject the moral low ground. Join us to discuss the moral high ground of nonviolent protest and peaceful assembly to reject the "Old South".
We as faith leaders are issuing a Call to Action to all people of good will of North Carolina to protest the immoral, mean-spirited, extremist and unconstitutional attacks. These attacks are against African-Americans, Latinos, poor and working people, women, students, and the elderly launched by the far right. These immoral attacks must be met with peaceful, non-violent moral witnesses and led by women and men of the Cloth.
We have had teleconferences with hundreds of citizens around the state, we have met as clergy and theologians in prayer and consolation. We must speak and act now.
We have released an open letter to religious and moral leaders to sign on and the response is growing. We are calling this state to prayer. We call on North Carolina citizens who believe the common good to pray and discern the ways we can use the moral tactics of the nonviolent movement to dramatize the shameful place we find ourselves in. The extreme actions of this legislative and executive leadership places a moral demand on us to even consider if peaceful, moral and nonviolent civil disobedience is necessary to dramatize the shameful nature of what is going on.
We invite clergy and all people of good will to be here Wednesday to hear firsthand the debate on voting rights so that our future actions will be rooted in what we have seen and heard with our own eyes and ears.
We are planning a fifteen county/city "Forward Together Not One Step Back" HKONJ People's Coalition tour. We are going into the communities of legislatures who have pushed these most extreme agenda items.
On Sunday April 28thin Durham at Pilgrim United Church of Christ we are having a community worship service to layout the case for moral nonviolent peaceful and yet determine protest in the face of unrelenting regression.
We call on those in the legislature to remember the Bible you placed your hand as you pledged to uphold the constitution and pull back from this extreme agenda. This agenda's impact is laced with classism and racism and it takes us backward rather than forward together. Remember you swore as public officials: "
We hold it to be self-evident that all persons are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, the enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor, and the pursuit of happiness. All political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government of right originates from the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole."
We call everyone to build the bridges of understanding, and not the walls of division. The policies now being promoted demand our voice, not our silence. These new walls demand our action, not our complacency.
Clergy and theologians in attendance:
Rev. Dr. Cardes H. Brown, Jr, Chair
North Carolina NAACP State Religious Affairs Committee
President, Greensboro Branch of the NAACP
Pastor, New Light Missionary Baptist Church, Greensboro
Rev. Dr. Nancy Petty, Pastor,
Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh
Dr. Amy Laura Hall
Associate Professor of Christian Ethics
Duke University Divinity School, Durham
Dr. Timothy B. Tyson,
Visiting Professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture,
Duke University Divinity School, Durham
Rev. Anthony J. Davis, Pastor
Mitchell Chapel AME Zion Church, Pittsboro
Rev. Gregory T. Headen, Pastor
Genesis Baptist Church, Greensboro
Elder Rae Chen Huang,
Presbyterian Church - USA
Duke University Divinity School, Durham
John Parker,
Duke University Divinity School, Durham
Rev. William Clayton, Pastor,
St. James Baptist Church, Henderson
Rev. Amos Quick, Pastor
Calvary Baptist Church, High Point
Rev. Clarence Shuford, Pastor
St. Philip AME Zion Church
President, Pulpit Forum, Greensboro
Rev. Terrence Williams, President
Scotland County NAACP
Pastor, Word International Church, Laurinburg
Barbara Zelter,
NC Council of Churches, Raleigh
Min. Sylvia Barnes, Secretary,
North Carolina NAACP
Associate Minister, Greenleaf Christian Church, Goldsboro, NC
Rev. Curtis E. Gatewood, NC NAACP Coordinator
Historic Thousands on Jones Street People's Coalition, Durham
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Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
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