Weekly protests conclude at legislature, but movement continues

The Poor People's Campaign, a national protest movement organized by former North Carolina NAACP leader Rev. William Barber and patterned after a similar effort created 50 years ago by Martin Luther King Jr., has been holding protests at statehouses across the country for the past six weeks to pressure lawmakers to do more to help those at the bottom, from providing better health care and education to expanding voting rights and equality.

Although Monday was the last scheduled protest for the movement, organizer Jade Jackson said the nationwide effort is a long way from over.

"This is just the beginning. We are here to be heard," Jackson said.

After rallying on Bicentennial Plaza, protestors filed into the Legislative Building and filled the rotunda between the House and the Senate, filling the building with chants, civil rights-era songs and prayers.

"As long as the law of the land is immoral and until the law of the land is changed, break the law," one woman shouted.

Thirteen people were arrested and charged with second-degree trespassing after they refused to leave the building.

Dozens of others were there to support them, including Sanzari Aranyak, a recent graduate of Broughton High School.

"I just think there's a lot we can do as a nation and that we need a moral revival as a country," Aranyak said.

More than 100 people have been arrested overall during the six weekly protests in Raleigh.

Some of the protestors plan to head to Washington, D.C., this weekend for a national rally by the Poor People's Campaign.