Two young activists founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960 at Shaw University located in downtown Raleigh.
This movement not only transformed the South through sit-in’s and other freedom movements but it inspired Moral Monday which escalated in numbers last year due to Pat McCoy’s bills signed into law.
Moral Monday was an enormous feat last year but this year on Saturday, February 8, 2014, the NC NAACP estimated that 80,000–100,000 people rallied in Raleigh with 100 buses coming in from all over the country, marching from Shaw to the North Carolina State Capitol.
These bills and rights fought for included: cuts to social programs, tax changes, voting rights, the Racial Justice Act, abortion rights, and cuts in salaries for public education teachers.
President of the North Carolina NAACP and leader of the Moral Monday movement, Reverend William Barber II, denoted in his speech, “You may have thought you were going to discourage us, but instead you have encouraged us. The more you push us back, the more we will fight to go forward. The more you try to oppress us, the more you will inspire us.”
And inspire the people of Raleigh, he did. Rallying the right-wing policies of the North Carolina government memorializing the eighth anniversary of the HKonJ coalition, Historic Thousands on Jones Street, where the NC legislature stands, the HKonJ coalition calls for five demands:
• Secure pro-labor, anti-poverty policies that insure economic sustainability;
• Provide well-funded, quality public education for all;
• Stand up for the health of every North Carolinian by promoting health care access and environmental justice across all the state’s communities;
• Address the continuing inequalities in the criminal justice system and ensure equality under the law for every person, regardless of race, class, creed, documentation or sexual preference;
• Protect and expand voting rights for people of color, women, immigrants, the elderly and students to safeguard fair democratic representation.
Due to this significant movement here in Raleigh, Moral Monday has trickled into Georgia and South Carolina.
Reverend Barber ensures us that, “This was just the beginning…we did not come all this way just to go home.”
Hopefully these rallies will continue peacefully and successfully, and start to make an impact on more than just North Carolina, but in our state as a whole.
