"For many, the Moral Monday Movement really is an expression of the Spirit’s power at work in our midst, overcoming divisions of color, class, and creed and uniting us as only God could do. Yes, perhaps in these dark times in our state, we can rejoice inasmuch as the Spirit is still evident and at work giving us all in response to the demonic powers of repression and regression and spiritual wickedness in high places, a hopeful glimpse of the Kingdom of God." -excerpt from the Forward Together Lectionary"
It was a frigid Saturday morning outside as I made my way downtown to support the ninth annual Moral March aka: Historic Thousands on Jones St (HKonJ). The 2014 march, which was dubbed the largest social movement in the South since Selma, drew tens of thousands at a time when the N.C. General Assembly was getting national attention for its conservative tax policies, environmental deregulation and social-program cuts. The 2015 march did not disappoint, as multiracial and intergenerational voices from the civil rights, faith-based, labor, student, women’s rights, environmental protection LGBTQ, marijuana laws, and immigrant justice communities again descended on Raleigh. The North Carolina NAACP has organized a “Mass Moral March on Raleigh” for the past nine years as a way for groups to come together and protest “immoral” legislation and push for a policy reform. The Moral March has actually become a nationwide movement as Moral Monday “spinoffs” occurred in states across the country in protest against local issues.
If we were to use numbers as a metric, as the mainstream media often does, the HKonJ movement has grown exponentially from approximately 3,500 attendees to as many as 80,000 in 2014 to approximately “two city blocks” in 2015. Rev. Barber disagreed with the two block crowd assessment for this year’s march but wrote to the Washington Times by email: “we never judge the power of the movement by sheer numbers but by the depth of the crowd” in their resolve.
The event also included a call to unity after the slayings of Lennon Lacy last summer and the three young Muslims in Chapel Hill last week. The Lacy family and the family of the three young Muslims in Chapel Hill were a part of Saturday’s march. Farris Barakat, the brother of the slain Deah Shaddy Barakat, told a pre-march rally good has come from the tragic deaths, but the public must speak out against anti-Muslim bias Barakat said the media has played a role in his brother’s death by contributing to harmful stereotypes surrounding Muslims. “They paid with their lives because they stood up for something that was demonized in the media...Maybe we haven’t stood up enough yet to say Muslims are Americans too.” Manzoor Cheema, co-founder of the Raleigh-based Muslims for Social Justice, said the shootings were linked to rising trend of Islamophobia in the U.S. Cheema said getting people to participate in social movements is necessary in order to continue working to end discrimination against marginalized populations. “I think that is the only way we can end Islamophobia and racism,” Cheema said.
Barber also pointed to Tuesday’s shooting as an example of how hate can be institutionally spread throughout a community. “Our worst fears, as Job says, have come true when you see some people spew out words of hate, and those words somehow get in the minds of those that are hateful, and they do hateful things,” Barber said.
Calling the shooting a hate crime, Barber compared the prejudices against Muslims to the long-standing history of racial discrimination against black people in the United States. In a show of solidarity with the Muslim community, an Imam, or spiritual leader of a Mosque, gave a Muslim call to prayer on stage during the pre-march rally in solidarity next to the Rev. William J. Barber II as the families looked on.
The same solidarity could be seen throughout the march. Protestors represented people of faith and people not of faith as they sang and chanted about issues of race and institutional racism. There were signs displaying hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter and #HandsUpDontShoot, which have helped shine light on police brutality in the U.S. after news of the deaths of several unarmed black men by police has garnered national attention in recent months. In early December, about 100 NC State students protested police brutality against black people by staging a “die-in” demonstration in D.H. Hill Library followed by a march to Western Boulevard.
Stay tuned there is more to come. While Republicans are still in control of the NC General Assembly, Medicaid still needs to be expanded, and the minimum wage in NC is still $7.25 per hour. Barber said civil disobedience would resume in Raleigh after Easter if the General Assembly fails to change its ways and reverse course."I've come to announce today we can't be quiet— not now, not ever…We want our leaders to put away your partisan arguments — do what is right for the people."
Check out more pictures from the rally: