Moral Mondays: Protesting Regressive Legislation in Raleigh

Freelance writer Nelda Holder
Freelance writer Nelda Holder
By Nelda Holder

Editor’s note: Freelance writer Nelda Holder volunteered to be one of those arrested in the Moral Monday protests led by the NAACP of North Carolina. This is a portion of her report.

The petite, attractive, ramrod-straight woman was standing squarely facing me as I walked into the lobby of the Wake County Detention Center at 1 o’clock in the morning. She held out her hand, and as I shook it, she said, “Thank you.” I was surprised and somehow humbled by this stranger.

I learned later that she was N.C. Sen. Earline Parmon of Winston-Salem. But that night, all I knew was that she waited for hours to shake hands with total strangers emerging from the jail after being voluntarily arrested at the Moral Monday protest on June 3 in Raleigh.

I was one of 151 people arrested that night, charged with second-degree trespass for standing in the rotunda of our NC Statehouse. It was the fifth Moral Monday organized by the Rev. William Barber, president of the NAACP of North Carolina; each week has brought more to the rallies and more to participate in civil disobedience.

On June 3 there were some 1,600 outside the Statehouse, listening to speakers talk about why the protest is necessary. There are a lot of reasons, all stemming from regressive legislation that is taking our state backwards in the areas of public education, health care, environmental quality, and perhaps most importantly of all, voting rights.

If you are considering arrest at a Moral Monday protest—and I hope you will—remember this: The NAACP will have your back.

NAACP Training

Participation begins with training at Martin Street Baptist Church at 3 p.m. on Monday. The team collects information about those planning to be arrested, provides protein snacks as folks leave the church to get on the bus to the Statehouse, and offers a place to leave your car.

The NAACP organizes the public rally behind the Statehouse, and the two-by-two march into the building for those willing to be arrested. They have supporters outside cheering you on as the prison bus pulls away from the building. They have volunteers in the lobby of the detention center when you are released. They check to make sure all who went in come back out. They provide papers and a notary so you may authorize them to assign a lawyer to your case. They even handle bail for those required to pay it.

And maybe sweetest of all, they have volunteers outside in the parking deck with a full meal for protestors being released all through the night.

Handcuffs and Fingerprints

Once the plastic handcuffs go on in the Statehouse and until you walk out that detention center door hours later and shake hands with Sen. Parmon, you are vigilantly aware that your wellbeing is in the hands of uniformed officers.

You are loaded onto a bus with metal grating over all the windows, driven with a police escort to the detention center, and told exactly what to do and not do for the next few hours.

Fortunately, you are surrounded by other protestors, and they are quite a bunch. I met and talked and laughed with some really wonderful folks from all over the state. But you will spend hours moving from one room to the next and waiting on concrete or metal benches. Eventually, you will have all fingers and both palms printed electronically, your mug shot taken, and then you’ll wait in two more locations before finally appearing before the magistrate to hear your charge and be assigned a court date. Mine is September 16. The NAACP will once again have my back by providing that lawyer.

The Why of it All

Exactly why did I do this—why did I travel for hours to Raleigh to be voluntarily arrested and spend a sleepless and slightly stressful night in a detention center?

I was born in this state. My Irish immigrant ancestor came to this state as a stonemason, and he helped build the original NC Capitol. I have two granddaughters growing up in Raleigh. I have no intention of just standing by while my state and my heritage are pushed backward by legislation that dims the vision of progress and disrupts the basic rights and quality of life for ordinary citizens—while protecting the moneyed few.

I hope you feel the same way. “Forward together. Not one step back.”

For more information on Moral Monday participation, go to www.naacpnc.org.