The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and the Forward Together Moral Movement Leads Seven Days of Moral Action at the State Capitol in Raleigh

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 15, 2014

 

Contact: Sarah Bufkin, NC NAACP - smbufkin@gmail.com or 404.285.3413

 

 

Other States Coordinating Similar Efforts Across the South and Beyond

 

 

RALEIGH - The North Carolina NAACP and its coalition partners in the Forward Together Moral Movement are mobilizing for a Moral Week of Action at the State Capitol from August 22-28 to challenge the ongoing extremist legislative attack on poor people and minorities in the state.

 

Across the South and the nation, coalitions in other states are coordinating their own campaigns during the Moral Week of Action at their state capitols to protest extremists that are using the legislature and governor's office to take aim at the country's most vulnerable communities.

 

For seven consecutive days at the end of August, North Carolinians will gather outside the offices of power to demand that Gov. Pat McCrory, House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate Leader Phil Berger repent for the damage their extreme agenda has already had on the people of North Carolina, repeal their devastating public policy and restore our state's commitment to put the common good at the center of public policy and governance.

 

Each day will lift up certain urgent issues while still recognizing the inherent connections between all social justice struggles and movements.

 

"We are challenging the policies of extremists who have overtaken the offices of governor and legislative leadership," said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, president of the NC NAACP. "Their attacks on the poor, working families, people of color, women and children, the elderly, immigrants and the undocumented, the LGTBQ community and other marginalized groups are unprecedented in modern times. For more than 67 weeks of Moral Monday actions, our fusion coalition has challenged this regressive public policy agenda that does not hold up to our deepest moral values and constitutional principles. We will continue to raise our moral critique and to mobilize citizens to engage in the struggle for their future during these seven days of action and beyond."

 

The first six days of the Moral Action will start with a gathering at Bicentennial Mall, directly across from the People's House at 16 West Jones St. From the Mall, moral witnesses will march to the State Capitol for a news conference and rally, scheduled to begin at 4 pm.

 

To honor the 51st anniversary of the March on Washington - and in keeping with the spirit that moved that march - the Forward Together Moral Movement will host a voting rights rally on the final day of the Moral Week of Action. The "Vote Your Dreams, Not Your Fears" rally will begin at 5:30 pm on Aug. 28 on Bicentennial Mall between the People's House and the State Capitol.

 

Likewise, justice-loving organizations across the nation are using the Forward Together Moral Movement model and coordinating their own campaigns in their home states during the Moral Week of Action.

 

The issues that these Moral Weeks of Action will emphasize are:

• Friday, 8.22 - Labor Rights, Fair and Living Wages, and Economic Justice
• Saturday, 8.23 - Education and Criminal Justice
• Sunday, 8.24 - Equal Protection under the Law: Call for Respect in the Law and in the Community regardless of race, creed, class, gender, sexual orientation and immigration status
• Monday, 8.25 - Youth Moral Monday
• Tuesday, 8.26 - Women's Rights
• Wednesday, 8.27 - Medicaid Expansion, Health Care and Environmental Justice
• Thursday, 8.28 - Vote Your Dreams, Not Your Fears: Mass Rally for Voting Rights

August 22 - August 27

3:30 pm - Gather on Bicentennial Mall - March to State Capitol

4:00 pm - News Conference and Rally at State Capitol

 

August 28 

5:30 pm - Voting Rights Rally: "Vote Your Dreams, Not Your Fears"

 

The Moral Week of Action takes after the agenda of hope the Forward Together Moral Movement has organized around for more than eight years. Since February 2007, thousands of North Carolinians of all colors, creeds, classes, ages, sexual orientations and party affiliations have come together around a new vision for the state that works towards:

 

(1)  Pro-labor, anti-poverty policies that ensure economic sustainability;

(2)  Educational equality that ensures every child high-quality, well-funded, constitutional, diverse public education;

(3)  Healthcare that ensures for all access to the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and environmental protection;

(4)  Fairness in the criminal justice system by addressing the continuing inequalities in the system and providing equal protection under the law for blacks, Latinos, Native American, and poor whites;

(5)  Protection and expansion of voting rights, women's rights, LGBT rights, immigrant rights, under the magnificent equal protection under the law constitutional guarantee we won in the 1860's.

 

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