Moral Monday Collides with Legislative Crossover

By Nelda Holder –

While the North Carolina General Assembly was in overdrive, pushing bills across the April 30 crossover, the Statehouse was visited by a new wave of Moral Monday protestors.

Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, led a small contingent into position in front of the Senate chamber doors on Wednesday, April 29, where 10 of the group – including a reported seven clergy members – were arrested as they sang and chanted in protest of various legislative policies. They were charged with violating fire code.

April 29 was the anniversary date of the first Moral Monday protest in 2014, which kicked off a movement bringing thousands to the Statehouse on Mondays during the spring and summer of that legislative session. The movement, which drew national attention, resulted in civil disobedience arrests of more than 1,000 demonstrators. (Charges against the majority of the demonstrators were subsequently dropped.)

At the most recent assembly date in Raleigh, 10 more demonstrators were arrested later in the afternoon when some 400 people gathered with Barber outside the Statehouse. And he promises to be back for more.

The anniversary observance was also a kickoff event for what is now called the Forward Together Moral Movement. According to an NAACP email announcement, demonstrations at the General Assembly will be held on Wednesdays because the Legislature is “attempting to curb our moral demonstrations by closing … early on Mondays. But they forgot that Moral Monday is a spirit not a day.”

The group’s agenda is reflected in the planned assemblies over the next two months, when they will take their message to both the Statehouse on Wednesdays and on alternate weeks will visit towns across the state on Mondays.

Here are the 2015 dates:

Wednesday, May 13 – General Assembly, Labor Rights and Living Wage

Monday, May 18 – Pitt County Moral Monday in Greenville

Wednesday, May 27 – General Assembly, Healthcare and Environmental Justice

Monday, June 1 – Mecklenburg County Moral Monday in Charlotte

Wednesday, June 10 – General Assembly, Equal Protection Under the Law

Monday, June 15 – TBA

Wednesday, June 17 – General Assembly, Women’s Rights

More information is available at the NCNAACP website, www.naacpnc.org.