What a wonderful experience was yesterday's seventh and final day of the NC NAACP's Jericho March to take back North Carolina. Music, fellowship, marching forward together, community building, a teach-in by our youth. And the cherry on the top: a deeply moving and inspiring Call to Action by Rev. Dr. William Barber II, who reminded us of the sacrifices of Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Rosanell Eaton (about whom more below) and so many, many more.
Join me below the fold for just a few of my favorite scenes from this soul-feeding day, plus a link to Dr. Barber's incredible speech.
These cats wailed:
...while hundreds of these cats marched (seven times around the walls of Jericho...the State House...as Gov. McCrory hid inside, refusing to meet with us:
This beautiful lady is Rosanell Eaton. Ninety-three years old, she is the lead plaintiff in the NAACP's federal suit against North Carolina's cowardly new voter suppression laws. Active in the voting rights movement since she was 17, when she first registered to vote she was required to recite the preamble to the Constitution as a 'literacy test' (and she did it, too). But today, because she was born outside of any hospital (due to segregation) she has no birth certificate. As things stand right now, that means she won't be able to vote in North Carolina in 2016. What an honor it was to stand with her.
Rev. Barber, just back from a trip to Ferguson, MO where he shunned cameras to meet instead with community leaders discussing the principles of the Moral Movement, charged us all to go back home and organize, struggle, and vote. "There is no such thing as an off-year election...because Wrong never takes a vacation!"
Rev. Barber's inspiring speech begins at about the 11 minute mark in this video. Sit back, enjoy, then stand up and move forward together with us (not one step back!).