Moral Movement State Tour Calls People to Raise Their Voices

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 29, 2014

For More Information: Laurel Ashton, Field Secretary, 828 713 3864

     Atty. Jamie Cole, Public Policy Coordinator, 919 682 4700

Forward Together Moral Movement State Tour Calls People to Raise Their Voices

Against Extremist Policies at the Moral March on Raleigh

DURHAM - Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, the president of the North Carolina NAACP, will take his statewide tour into Eastern North Carolina starting on Jan. 31 in order to mobilize for the Moral March on Raleigh HKonJ People's Assembly.

The tour, which began on Jan. 14, has rallied thousands of people from Brevard to Burlington against the constitutionally-inconsistent, morally-indefensible and economically-insane policies pushed by Gov. Pat McCrory, Speaker Tom Tillis, Senate Leader Phil Berger and Budget Director Art Pope.

"Overturning these policies is a task that asks us all to come together," Dr. Barber said, "no matter what our color, religion, party affiliation, creed, sexuality or socioeconomic status."

At each stop, Dr. Barber stressed the need for North Carolinians to continue to stand in witness against laws passed by extremist legislators in 2013 that will hurt the sick, the poor, women, children and hard-working people who have fallen on rough times.

"The people's power is steadfast," Dr. Barber told the crowd gathered in Winston-Salem on Jan. 23. "This year, we will vote with our voices and with our ballots at the ballot box."

The Moral March on Raleigh kicks off a year of nonviolent direct-action, litigation, voter education and mobilization for the NC NAACP and its partners as they seek to overturn the old Southern strategy of racial and socioeconomic division and pursue a new fusion politics united around serving all the people.

Dr. Barber and the Forward Together team have already put in hundreds of miles across the state, making appearances in Laurinburg, Plymouth, Goldsboro, Charlotte, Asheville, Brevard, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Burlington and Rocky Mount. Over the next two weeks, the statewide tour will move eastward. 

But the Moral Movement will return to Raleigh on Feb. 3 for the Moral Monday "Costs and Loss" Policy Briefing. Held at 3 pm at the Martin St Baptist Church Family Life Center, the briefing will bring together scholars, economists, business people and policy experts to explain how the laws and regulations pushed by Gov. McCrory and the General Assembly leadership have cost the average North Carolinian morally, economically, socially, politically and physically.

These experts will challenge the governor's and his allies' framing of the past year as a "Carolina Comeback" by pointing out empirically the costs and losses of these extremist policies that have instead fostered a "Carolina Set-Back and Catastrophe."

Below is the Moral Movement Statewide Tour - Eastern Edition schedule:

Friday - Jan. 31

Wilmington (New Hanover County) 

10:00 AM 

Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church 

2929 Princess Place Dr, Wilmington, NC 28405

Saturday - Feb. 1

Halifax (Halifax County) 

2:00 PM 

Twilight Baptist Church 

1781 Aurelian Springs Rd, Halifax, NC 27839

Elizabeth City (Pasquotank County)

6:00 PM

Holy Trinity Community Church

607 S. Road Street, Elizabeth City, NC 27909

Sunday - Feb. 2

Washington (Beaufort County)

5:00 PM

Metropolitan AME Zion Church

102 W Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Washington, NC 27889

Monday - Feb. 3

Hickory (Catawba County) 

10:00 AM 

Clinton Tabernacle AME Zion Church 

492 Catawba Valley Blvd, Hickory, NC 28601 

Moral Movement's Costs and Loss State Policy Briefing

Raleigh (Wake County)

3:00 PM

Martin Street Baptist Church Family Life Center

1001 E Martin St, Raleigh, NC 27601

For more information regarding the tour dates, please see the schedule posted on the Moral March Statewide Tour event page.

The NC NAACP has also released a promotional video that calls upon North Carolinians to march and make themselves heard on issues they believe in, from better education funding to the extension of unemployment benefits to the expansion of Medicaid. See the video here.

Don't forget to RSVP for the Moral March! #Forward Together #MoralMarch

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