Before we all heard about the hippie Pope we were watching North Carolina’s own Reverend Barber. Barber is the leader of an incredibly diverse group of people who support voting rights, health care, public education, civil rights for gay people, rights for women, labor rights, and poor people.
Rev. Dr. William Barber of the NC NAACP speaking at a June 2013 Moral Monday rally at the state legislature. He and other movement leaders are circulating an open letter asking Gov. Pat McCrory to convene a “Special Redemption Session” to reverse decisions controversial decisions about Medicaid and emergency aid for the long-term unemployed. (Photo by T.W. Buckner via Flickr.)
This is what Barber and his Moral Monday group have been up to since we last checked in:
Hundreds of protesters marched on the State Capitol Monday evening in a sign that the demonstrations that marked the 2013 legislative session will continue into next year.
The march came hours after a Superior Court judge ruled that state officials improperly denied a permit for the protest.
The NAACP organized the rally to protest policies of the Republican-led General Assembly. Several left-leaning groups are trying to pressure Gov. Pat McCrory to convene a special legislative session on expanding Medicaid and reversing cuts to unemployment benefits.
The NAACP and other groups plan to hold a mass march on the Capitol on Feb. 8.
“We want to send a shock wave through this state,” Barber told the crowd of people, many of whom held up electric candles in the rainy weather. “If you thought we fought in 2013, you ought to see how we fight in an election year.”
The fight was in a Wake County courtroom earlier Monday, as the groups challenged the Department of Administration’s refusal to give them a permit for the rally on Capitol grounds.
“The state cannot stand up and say, in good faith, that hundreds of people cannot gather,” Holmes said. “If the people of North Carolina cannot go to the State Capitol after work to pray, when can they go?”
Judge Allen Baddour questioned why the permit application asked what a group plans to do on the Capitol grounds, saying it appears that officials are basing the decision to grant a permit on the content of the activity.
“The concern the court has is that it is either discretionary or content-based,” Baddour said.
Conservatives made their usual well-reasoned argument in opposition to allowing dissenting political speech, where they wondered aloud whether Barber’s group would “roast a goat” or hold “womanless weddings” at the Capitol.
The judge said that he suspected that the administration’s ban on the NAACP was “either discretionary or content based.”
In other good news for democracy enthusiasts, the Obama Administration continues their strong record on voting rights with this pick:
Pamela Karlan, a noted voting-rights expert and professor at Stanford Law School, will join the Obama Administration shortly as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of the voting-rights section. Karlan, a favorite of many liberals in the legal world, will join the department as it begins a strong counter-offensive on voting rights following the Supreme Court’s limiting of the Voting Rights Act in a decision earlier this year.
This position does not require Senate confirmation.
MomSense
The Moral Monday movement and coalition is probably right at the top of my personal list of the best things that have happened this year in politics.
Botsplainer
My local Clear Channel station is rerunning a hatefest, featuring their newest RWNJ. It is a long rant against raising the minimum wage, dogging fast food workers the most.
It makes me want to torch a crèche.
Keith G
Praise Hera! Securing the right of all citizens to be able to vote with an absolute minimum of hassle is the next big fight. I am glad the administration is showing more signs of gearing up.
c u n d gulag
I met Reverend Barber several times when I was an anti-war, anti-torture, anti-rendition, activist in Fayetteville, NC.
He was always gracious, and generous with his time.
I’m not a religious person, but imo, he’s what I think an activist person of the cloth, should be like.
feebog
While Reverend Barber is with the NAACP, what I have noticed in coverage of these demonstrations is the diversity. You can see it in the picture posted with the post. Young, middle aged, old, black and white. This is a movement that includes a lot of folks who have varied interests, but have come together to challenge the current power structure. Given the Gerrymandered condition of the state I don’t know if they can retake the legislature, but I think McCrory is toast.
japa21
Pierce is almost always good, but these two posts may be his best of the year:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Christmas_In_Two_Nations_Part_One
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/christmas-serial-part-2-122413
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@c u n d gulag:
Exactly my view as well. Too few like him, sadly.
Kay, thanks as always for keeping is informed with insightful posts – in this case good news!
Happy Holidays to everyone at Balloon Juice.
::heads off to grump, a personal holiday tradition::
AMinNC
The Moral Mondays gatherings were incredibly inspiring – a coming together of a wide variety of races, ages, economic classes and faith-based (and non-religious) citizens to say ENOUGH! All credit to Dr. Barbour and the NAACP for shining a strong light on the horrors coming out of the General Assembly, and for just grinding it out week after week all across the state.
It is going to be incredibly difficult to change the GA enough to make a difference because of GOP gerrymandering, but every seat gets us one vote closer. The Democratic party is active like I’ve never seen it, working on voter registration and ID issues (in case the laws are upheld). It seems as if maybe (FINALLY) the Dems are taking off-year elections seriously.
It is really horrifying to see the dying remnants of the old confederate strain lash out for all they are worth trying to continue to hold on to their power (allied with the plutocratic strain – AKA Art Pope – of course). I live in one of the liberal enclaves of NC, so my perspective is somewhat skewed, but this state is not nearly as “red” as the current legislature indicates. And in their overreach, I really believe the reactionaries are hastening their demise. Women, students, people of color, the LBGT community, the highly educated (and there are quite a lot of us here between Research Triangle and all the great universities in the state) are all against the GOP. The million-dollar question is how much damage can they do before they are dislodged.
Kay
@feebog:
Oh, well, him. He’s not calling the shots.
If you’re right the unelected plutocrat Art Pope who is actually running the state is toast:
James E Powell
It says a lot about the right-wing haters that they can’t even take a week off for the holidays. Is there any cure for their disease?
Kay
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Happy Holidays to you too. I know you saw the Ohio supreme court upheld Medicaid expansion.
Good work! Congrats on a big win.
Eric U.
@James E Powell: the fact that Jerry Falwell always tried to make political points because of the “war on Christmas” is what gives me high confidence that if his chosen brand of Christianity is true, he’s in hell.
carolinadave
Cervantes
Pamela Karlan is an excellent pick. She has a brilliant legal mind. She wrote Justice Blackmun’s dissent in Bowers v. Hardwick. She’s female. She’s gay. She’s Jewish. A great pick.
Mike in NC
@Kay: Yeah, who needs a hippy Pope when you have Koch ally Art Pope? He’s going to make sure everybody in North Carolina gets a nice lump of coal for Christmas. Then again, coal can be burned to generate warmth, so just forget about that, too, you moochers.
J.D. Rhoades
@Kay:
And several of the protestors proudly put the mugshots on their Facebook pages. So much for trying to shame and intimidate people.
Villago Delenda Est
@James E Powell:
There is a cure.
Tumbrel rides.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cervantes:
Thank FSM she’s not Irish, too!.
Villago Delenda Est
@Eric U.:
Falwell and others of his vile ilk should thank FSM that upon death, they’re consigned to oblivion, and not to the punishments their own mythology meets out to the wicked.
Mike in NC
@carolinadave:
How sad that these Republicans are reduced to putting photos of protesters on a web site. In the “good old days” they were free to attack them with police dogs, tear gas, and fire hoses. If they could get away with that now, don’t think that they wouldn’t.
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, her partner is Catholic. Does that help?
Tokyokie
@James E Powell: Because during the Christmas season especially, it’s important to keep in mind WWJD: “Whom Would Jesus Disenfranchise.”
Mnemosyne
@carolinadave:
I’m surprised he didn’t work in “outside agitators.”
Linda Featheringill
If the Right Wing Power Circle members had the sense God gave a goose, they would make whatever concessions needed to make this coalition unnecessary.
Hell of a coalition, guys. Really looks good to me.
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne:
Comsymps, the lot of them. Where is J. Edger Whoozis in America’s hour of need?
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
They did.
They also checked their backgrounds to “prove” that they were brought in by labor from out of state. The vast majority were North Carolinians, so that was embarrassing.
Gex
@James E Powell: No doubt. Who’s disrespecting CHRISTmas now?
TR
@Kay: Claude Pope? Related to Art?
karen
North Carolina has had record rainfall this year. G-d is crying.
sensesfail
@japa21:
These posts are FANTASTIC. Thank you for sharing the links!
kc
@MomSense:
Agreed. It’s inspiring.
RepubAnon
If the Attorney General is worried about “womanless marriages”, this implies that he’s totally supportive of all-woman marriages. Perhaps someone should ask why he supports the right of gay women to marry, but not gay men…
It’s also amusing that he claims that he’s not denying permits based on the content of the speech. His justification: giving examples of speech content that would not be allowed. This poses an interesting question: how did he pass Constitutional Law?
Betsy
@TR: uncle I think