Rev. Barber’s ‘Love Forward Together’ rally draws thousands to NC State Capitol
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- More than 2,000 marchers gathered at the N.C. Capitol to protest redistricting.
- New 1st District map cuts Black voter share from 40.7% to 32.1%, Carolina Demography says.
- Rev. William Barber II led a 50‑mile Moral March drawing faith groups, unions and voters.
Between the riffs of harmonicas, bass and electric guitars and saxophones, a choir of roughly 15 in black jackets and red scarves sang “we won’t be denied” to welcome 2,000 or more people marching down Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh Saturday.
The marchers gathered at the North Carolina State Capitol for the “Love Forward Together Mass People’s Assembly & Moral March.” The goal was to raise awareness about the Republican-controlled N.C. legislature redrawing North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, which covers much of the northeast part of the state, to dilute Democratic voting power.
Northeastern North Carolina is home to a sizable Black population, but the new map drops the share of Black voters in the 1st Congressional District from 40.7% to 32.1%, according to an analysis from the Carolina Demography Center.
Saturday culminated a 50-mile “Moral March” from Wilson to Raleigh, launched by the president of Repairers of the Breach and a co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, Rev. William Barber II. The rally brought together several faith leaders, church coalitions and unions, many of whom spoke about a wide range of issues from service workers’ need for a living wage to condemning ICE raids. Most speakers emphasized the importance of voting despite the redrawn maps.
Speakers and the choir, through lyrics like “this is our Selma,” invoked images of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama, which contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Barber said after the N.C. General Assembly finalized the new maps, he and others knew they “no longer can just remember Selma. This is our Selma.”
Several hundred people made the entire march from Wilson to Raleigh, Barber told The News & Observer. Most people they encountered were supportive of the march, and some people told Barber and company they were inspired to go vote after seeing the march.
“In some places, we got cursed out, but we said to them, ‘We love you, too,’” Barber said. “Because those same people that were cursing at us, they’re in poor districts. They need health care, too. They need living wages.”
Being from Pasquotank County in northeastern North Carolina, Ashley Mitchell told The N&O that she saw from voters in the redrawn 1st and 3rd Congressional districts a feeling that the new maps were “just another attack, just another barrier” to voting. Mitchell, a staff attorney at the law and policy center Forward Justice, sensed apathy — even from family members.
Mitchell — who spoke at the rally and condemned the closure or restriction of voting sites on college campuses like N.C. A&T State University — has been involved in voter education efforts across eastern North Carolina, informing voters about the new maps, dealing with voter intimidation and explaining what goes on at the N.C. Legislature.
Mitchell said many Eastern North Carolina residents get Virginia news, not North Carolina news.
Through that outreach, Mitchell said, she’s starting to see a shift in voters’ attitudes.
“They are empowered,” Mitchell told The N&O. “They're starting to understand their rights more, and they're excited to get out to the polls in November.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2026 at 2:12 PM with the headline "Rev. Barber’s ‘Love Forward Together’ rally draws thousands to NC State Capitol."
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