RALEIGH – On Valentine's Day, and Frederick Douglass's chosen birthday, moral, faith and community leaders gathered for the "Love Forward Together" Mass People's Assembly & Moral March at the North Carolina State Capitol.

The rally marked the culmination of a historic 50-mile, three-day march from Wilson to Raleigh protesting health care cuts, voter suppression, ICE raids, and relentless policy violence against poor and low-income communities.

Led by Bishop William J. Barber II, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach and founding director of the Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, the mass mobilization demonstrated the collective power of North Carolina's 3.4 million poor and low-income voters as early voting continues ahead of the midterm elections.

The march, marking 156 years since the ratification of the 15th amendment, represented a call to conscience and moral witness in response to what organizers describe as un-American forces of authoritarianism that have ushered in a politic of fear, division, and hate that has ripped at the fabric of communities across this nation.

As early voting began on Feb. 12, marchers are drawing particular attention to racist gerrymandering in the 1st Congressional District and its attempt to diminish the voting power of all people in the district.

“We will not be part of a narrative of complicity. For love and democracy to prevail, we must mobilize the vote as never before in our history,” Barber said. “The ballot is necessary, and we must organize a movement large and strong enough to transform this country. If we love the establishment of justice, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare of all people and equal protection under law, then we must voice our love. It’s time to vote our love and walk in the vitality and vision of love.”

Barber shared the movement’s seven calls to moral action and delivered a keynote on why love must be at the center, what love demands and how love must organize.

Between now and Nov. 3, Repairers of the Breach is launching a nonpartisan, people’s movement to educate every citizen in N.C. District 1 and District 3 about the attempt to abridge their voting rights. The nonpartisan effort will focus on the massive bloc of low-income and infrequent voters who have the power to determine elections in every place.

Comments