On June 16, in the muggy heat of the North Carolina Peidmont, hundreds of activists, organizers and working class citizens rallied at the Halifax Mall in Raleigh. Moral Monday, the progressive movement which has continued now for over a year has brought thousands of first time activists into the struggle and connected the dots between many important issue-based movements across the state. Moral Monday has put North Carolina in the national spotlight as the source of a proliferation of grassroots organizing across the South-East.
A growing number of voices among participants seem to reflect an emerging recognition that changing the faces in public offices in no way affects the function of those offices.
Liberation staffers from Asheville North Carolina made the 300+ mile drive down the mountains to participate in the rally June 16. Our interviews with protesters made it clear that Moral Monday’s traditional displays of civil disobedience drew a large number of young people from across the state, eager to be arrested for what they believe. On such young man, Mike Wilson, a Durham native, spoke of his upbringing in a low-income neighborhood and his first hand experiences with police brutality, poverty, poor housing, and underemployment. When asked why he chose to participate in Moral Monday, he responded, “I wanted [the NC general assembly] to know I was here, to know I’m not afraid of them.”
