N E W S
Fusion and future Thousands heed the call and come out for Mountain Moral Monday
By DAVID FORBES
dforbes@mountainx.com 251-1333 ext. 137
“What do we do when they mess with education?” Rev. William Barber shouted to the people assembled in downtown’s First Congregational Church Aug. 5. “We fight! We fight! We fight!” the people assembled replied. “What do we do when they mess with Medicaid?” (“We fight!”) “What do we do when they mess with our voting rights?” (“We fight!”) “What do we do when they mess with women’s rights?” (“We fight!”) And so it went at the prologue to Mountain Moral Monday, hosted a few hours later in downtown Asheville as follow-up to a series of similar protests held in Raleigh in the past few months. The Western North Carolina edition boasted significantly larger crowds than those at the Statehouse and was one of the largest downtown gatherings in recent memory. Crowd estimates vary — from City Council member Cecil Bothwell’s declaration that 10,000 packed the square, to the Asheville Police Capt. Tim Splain’s report that the numbers “well exceeded” the 5,000 the APD prepared for. According to an Asheville Citizen-Times report, the We Still Pray rally in 2000 drew about 4,500 people downtown, and other past protests have drawn 2,000 or 3,000 people. Whatever the exact number on Aug. 5, the crowd swelled in size and in voices, starting nearby with Barber’s mid-afternoon presentation at the church to a group of about 40 organizers, core supporters of Moral Mondays and the press. “What do we do as long as we
8
AUGUST 14 - AUGUST 20, 2013
have breath in our bodies?” he called out. Supporters again shouted, “We fight!” The sounds rang off the rafters of the old stone church. President of the state NAACP, Barber has emerged as a leader of Moral Mondays, which target legislation passed by the General Assembly in recent months, such as one of the South’s strictest voter I.D. laws, changes to the state education budget and a bill that could restrict access to abortion. Ready to rumble At the church, Barber laid out his conviction that Moral Mondays are more than a protest. He referenced the end of the Civil War and the more recent Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, calling this year’s events part of a “third Reconstruction.” Further, Moral Mondays represent a new “fusion politics,” similar to
mountainx.com
A movement: Moral Monday protesters were angry at the state Legislature over issues ranging from education to abortion to voting and fewer services for low-income families. They gathered Aug. 5 to express their outrage. Photo by Julia Ritchey
the alliance of white Populists and African-American Republicans during the late 1800s. “Every time this country has tried to reconstruct itself, in the 1800s or the 1960s, the first attack to stop it has been an attack on voting rights,” Barber said. “People are coming from everywhere as a fusion movement. The reason these extremists are doing what they’re doing is not because we’re weak. It’s a
reaction to our strength” Barber alluded to North Carolina’s post-Civil War history: The fusion coalition won some elections, but encountered violence and voter suppression, orchestrated for the most part by the Democratic Party and allied groups that were then dominated by ex-Confederates. Today’s issues aren’t simply limited to one political party or other, Barber continued, but this year’s legislation represents an “avalanche of extremism. … This is not the time for us to be cool, calm and amicable.” With that in mind, a coalition has emerged out of the Moral Monday protests: Forward Together. The group is pursuing a threepronged approach — a legal attack on recently passed legislation, a voter-registration drive and events around the state like Mountain