‘Moral Monday’ demonstrators back in Raleigh with more arrests

Demonstrators returned to the N.C. Legislative Building on Wednesday to mark the second anniversary of the start of the Moral Monday protests, and in keeping with the tradition of two summers ago, people were arrested.

The Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP and the chief architect of the movement that gained national attention, said the demonstrators have a growing list of issues they want legislators to give attention to this session.

“We’re back because of the extremism and injustices hurting the people in North Carolina that in so many ways still exist in this General Assembly,” Barber said.

He reeled off a list that included some of the perennials – expansion of Medicaid, dedicating more public money to public education, voting rights and women’s rights. This year, the demonstrators also plan to renew their push for a higher minimum wage and more jobs and to urge lawmakers to focus on those topics instead of what some describe as “social wedge” issues. Clergy met in a downtown Raleigh church shortly before noon, then marched to the Legislative Building.

Arrests occurred after nearly a dozen demonstrators blocked chamber doors.

Among those arrested was the Rev. David C. Forbes Sr., a longtime civil rights activist and Raleigh resident who was North Carolina’s representative on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s.

“It’s a powerful group,” Barber said.

The event marks the second anniversary of the April 29 demonstration in 2013 that launched a protest movement that resulted in more than 900 arrests. The demonstrations began after Republicans gained control of both legislative chambers and the governor’s office for the first time in more than a century.

Though many of the protesters went to court, and some ended up convicted of the charges, most of the cases were dismissed after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2014 for a Massachusetts case tied to protests there.

The demonstrations on Wednesday in North Carolina continued in the afternoon.

Todd Poole, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, released a statement on Wednesday calling the demonstrations “more political theater to push for their radical agenda of bigger government and higher taxes.”

“While there is still more work to do to keep the Carolina comeback going strong, their agenda would take North Carolina backwards,” Poole said in the statement.

This story was originally published April 29, 2015 at 3:00 PM with the headline "‘Moral Monday’ demonstrators back in Raleigh with more arrests."