Rev Barber
Daily Kos members from North Carolina and beyond traveled to hot and steamy Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Monday to join with about 7,000 progressive activists to rally and march for change in the state's voting rights laws.
We had twenty members stand and march with us as we demonstrated a unified purpose with passion, determination, education, outreach and recruitment. By the time our contingent from Asheville made it home after 11:00 pm, there were already three great diaries on the Rec List. Please visit below for my story and photos, links to those other diaries with tons of other photos and news sources covering the event.
When we arrived at the location of the rally a little before 3:00 pm, we were quick to find DawnN, Lamont Cranston, DocDawg, TexDem, Marihilda and her friend. They were easy to find, they had signs! The larger crowd was just barely starting to trickle in and our DK morning crew had already staked out the shady high ground for gathering the troops and displaying the signs.
Let's March! Joieau, new friend Rev. Bruce, Chris Reeves, mixedbag, TexDem, DawnN and FarmerG.
Soon, more of us showed and it wasn't long before the first of many busses arrived letting groups off from all over the state. We were so excited when the Asheville bus showed up that Dawn and I went to greet them thinking we would surely recognize someone. Nope. But that just goes to show you how many potential DK recruits we have in the mountains, bwahaha.
Mountain Counties made the trip
Around 5:00 the music started up mixed with a few speeches and shout backs. "Forward Together, Not One Step Back!" rang through the grounds as everyone prepared for the march itself. Soon organizers started gathering people together and moving them into the direction and location for the start. The DK crew happened to be in the section where the march started so we landed in a pretty good spot.
Chris Reeves, Joieau lining up to head out.
The march itself was strong, lively, very hot, respectful with a broad mix of expression from quiet determination to raucous bull horn led chants to smiles and laughter. Law enforcement was courteous and professional and there was enough ice water being handed out that I think most everyone stayed hydrated. The only downside to the execution of the march itself was that more than once, the organizers stopped the momentum of the sea of people. If you happened to be in the shade of the canyon of tall Winston buildings you had it made. If you had to wait five minutes in the sun though it was just too much. At one of these delays, Gordon20024 had to bail to get cool. We bid him safe travels and I was happy to see his comments in last evening's diaries about the event.
Mr SteelrGrrl leading the way toward the street with others behind.
The thousands finally made their way back to the plaza after circling a few big city blocks and settled in for the highlight of the day, hearing
Rev. Barber. He fired up the crowd with a dramatic and painful speech using the theme of shed blood, holy and otherwise to demonstrate what the Republicans in the State House have done to dishonor the sacrifice of so many who fought, bled, and died for the simple act of casting a vote. Then taking this model even further, he admonished these Repulicans as
sinners. Make no mistake he said, these Legislators and this Governor are engaged in
sin, plain and simple. It was a very powerful and moving message.
After the march, somewhat sweatier than before. Joieau, a peeping eeff (under sign), LamontCranston talking to davehouck, the Steelers.
As the rally wound down, we all packed up our stuff, Lamont Cranston grabbed our signs, and we went our separate ways, all of us I know, enriched, inspired and
thinking. Well actually we didn't
all go our separate ways, more about that at the end.
Highlights
Power of Signs
Thanks to the coordinated effort of navajo and DocDawg and everyone pitching in, Daily Kos made a strong statement Monday. We were out in force with twenty people but the signs made us look much more prominent and active. I'm absolutely sure there are a thousand pictures with those signs in the frame.
The Sign, randallt, new friend and TexDem
They accomplished a lot. They gave us a place to be and they stirred an enormous amount of interest. I lost count, early on, of the number of people who came up to me as I was holding a sign, and asked me what it meant. Ready with a quick reply, a smile and path to join DK, I realized I had the best recruiting tool I could imagine right in my hands. During the march a nice young man asked me what the sign was all about and when I explained the community he got so excited. He had just started blogging for himself recently and obviously had the bug.
What happened next was a perfect movie scene. Right as I finished chatting with him a young lady came up to me and said excitedly, "Daily Kos! I love you guys, I read at least three times a day!" I said, well join then and she happily said she would before heading off through the sea of marchers. The kid had to be impressed. That scene played itself out all day with at least a dozen or so people who approached me to say how much they love DK.
Power of Community
Many DK members met each other for the first time. The power of face to face engagement can never be underestimated and we should all be grateful for these opportunities to see each other on the ground, not just behind the keyboard. I had several people ask me if they could write for Daily Kos. I told them of course they could, all they needed to do was to become a member, learn the site and get cracking. Most were surprised in that they thought Daily Kos was just about the front page and didn't realize how much depth there is to the site and community. Among those we met was a film maker working on a documentary about lynchings in the South. I hope to be introducing her to you in the next few days.
Fired up! Joieau, mixedbag, a new friend, Gordon200024, SteelerGrrl, DawnN, TexDem, FarmerG, davehouck.
I was honored to meet Chris Reeves all the way from Kansas City. We have great talent in a kind soul there. Have fun in Phoenix Chris! Also it was a wonderful treat to meet mixedbag, who had traveled all the way from Florida and felt like an old friend.
Power of Press
DocDawg, Lamont Cranston and Leslie Salzillo and DawnN began the day very early in line to get a seat in the courtroom. Doc, proudly wearing his PRESS badge was able to take notes during the day so please look forward to extensive reporting of the trial going forward. He will be our man on the scene. After the trial while waiting for the rally to begin, he had to attend to an emergency and we didn't get to see him for the rest of the day. The emergency was our only one but it did entail a not too serious, but painful, injury. For privacy I'll leave it at that.
I was able to represent on 880 The Revolution as a reporter in the field. As regular readers know, Asheville is blessed with one of only four local progressive talk radio shows in the country and the host is DKos Asheville's friend Jeff Messer. His daily live show has a huge internet audience as well a large local audience. He does a three hour show and as the rally was about to start, he started a segment on the trial and the rally and asked me to call in and be his reporter on the scene. So I did. You can listen to it here. There is an easy to use player on the web page. Just click in the middle of the slider around the 75:30 mark.
And now some more pictures...
Great ideas for registering voters from these folks
Gordon20024, DawnN, Lamont Cranston, Joieau, randallt
SteelerGrrl, Joieau, Mr SteelerGrrl
As promised above when I mentioned that not everyone went their separate ways after leaving the event: Several of us had the great pleasure of having beverages and food at Foot Hills Brewery, Winston's fine downtown brewery. Our host was TexDem, a Winston native and ex-pat who we had spent the entire day with. The last time we had seen each other was at the Mountain Moral Monday rally in Asheville last year. A nice cap to a great day.
Dinner! TexDem, davehouck, DawnN, Joieau, randallt
Scallywags downtown after the day
Socialist Beer
Here are a few links to read more about the day. Thank you all for coming, thank you Doc for all your work, thank you Steelers for your cloths and your energy and your sign carrying with Joieau, thank you Dawn and LC for tirelessly working hard all day, thank you David for getting us there and back safe and sound and thank you Daily Kos for helping to enable local power.
North Carolina Blue has all three of last night's great diaries about the day including photos and commentary from attendees and others. Courtesy of SteelerGrrl, Chris Reeves and eeff.
NEWS
ABCNews/AP [trial coverage]
W-S Journal photo gallery
Wilmington Journal write-up