BISHOP BARBER: Moral Monday's message to North Carolina legislators

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following are excerpts from the text of a letter to the N.C. General Assembly read by Bishop William Barber and those attending the Moral Monday 10-Year Anniversary and Recommitment Rally on April 24 at the front door to the North Carolina Legislative Building. Copies of the letter were also left for distribution to legislators. The full text of the letter from Repairers of the Breach is available here.

“We demand the N.C. General Assembly cease and desist from what is becoming a long train of abuses already in 2023 ignoring the real needs of poor people in this state while attaching living wages, voting rights, safety from gun violence, our humanity and our environment, our schools and our public education system, our reproductive rights and right to bodily autonomy, our access to health care and our fight to safety from violence and discrimination in the criminal legal system.

“We demand that you stand with the people of this state to protect the fundamental, sacred right to vote from another threatened avalanche of voter suppression laws and anti-free speech laws aimed together at dismantling the still unrealized promise of a just, representative, multiracial democracy in North Carolina.

“The General Assembly must cease legislation contrary to the N.C. Constitution, Article I Section 2, which commands: ‘All political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government of right originates from the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole.’

“Ten years ago, 17 North Carolinians walked into the General Assembly to bear witness to the immoral attacks on the most vulnerable residents of our state. The Moral Mondays movement was one of the largest direct action campaigns in a state legislature in U.S. history. In total, more than 1,000 individuals were arrested.

“Today, we stand with all those across the nation who have come together united to address the deaths that occur to the failure of elected officials to support and pass public policies that address voter suppression, healthcare, living wages, and gun reform – and to uphold equal protection under the law against racism and targeted attacks on our humanity.

“We demand that the North Carolina General Assembly, immediately:

• Protect and expand voting rights.
• End the use of racial and partisan gerrymanders.
• Urge North Carolina congressional representatives to restore the key protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1975 now.
• Affirm and fully restore the right to vote for the currently and formerly incarcerated in this state.

“We demand that the North Carolina General Assembly, immediately:

• Provide living wages and economic security for all workers.
• Protect the right to form and join a union.

“Because North Carolina has refused and resisted the expansion of Medicaid until this year, and there are at least 1 million North Carolinians who are uninsured,

“We demand that the North Carolina General Assembly:

• Immediately adopt and implement universal quality healthcare.
• Expand Medicaid with no strings attached.

“Because vulnerable communities in North Carolina are at risk from multiple extremist attacks targeting our humanity, our right to bodily integrity, and our right to live,

“We demand that the North Carolina General Assembly:

• Protect reproductive justice and the right to bodily autonomy.
• Reject all proposals to deny the humanity of transgender youth and adults and protect equal protection under the law for LGBTQ communities.
• Protect immigrant communities and recognize their role in this society.
• Reject any attempt to force local sheriffs to become extensions of ICE and further terrorize immigrant communities.
• Fully recognize public education and protect the right to teach accurate history.

“We will not allow the clock to be turned back on our democracy, for our hard-fought gains to vanish, or for our children to have less democracy, less rights, less environmental justice than we do today.

“Forward together, not one step back!”

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