N.C. NAACP comes to W-S for training
Photo by Tevin Stinson
N.C. NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II speaks during a press conference on Saturday, Jan. 9, in Winston-Salem at Goler Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church.
Chronicle Staff Report
Over 100 members of the N.C. NAACP and its Forward Together Moral Movement gathered at Goler Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church on Saturday, Jan. 9, to receive training on how to register voters and learn more about the upcoming election.
The training sessions were part of the N.C. NAACP’s fight for voting rights, better known as “Our Time, Our Vote.”
The campaign is a collaboration with Democracy N.C. and is designed to promote voter education, engagement and empowerment.
During a press conference held before the training session, the N.C. NAACP president, the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber said it is important that the community understands how important voting is.
“Others have had the time to vote on policy. It’s our time now to judge them at the ballot box,” said Barber. “We aren’t just building for 2016; we are building an infrastructure that will last a long time, beyond this election.”
The N.C. NAACP on Tuesday, Jan. 12, held a press conference in Durham to provide an update on the organization’s lawsuit that challenges the state’s restrictive voter ID requirement.
“North Carolina’s voter ID requirement is one of the many provisions of the state’s massive voter suppression law, H.B. 589,” the organization said in a statement. “Knowing the ID requirement would not pass constitutional review, the legislature modified the law just weeks before the July 2015 trial challenging H.B. 589. The trial proceeded regarding the law’s other provisions, though the photo ID requirement will not be addressed in court until Jan. 25 [in federal court in Winston-Salem]. Under the modified ID requirement, voters who do not have one of the limited forms of accepted ID due to a ‘reasonable impediment’ can sign a declaration confirming their identity.”
At Tuesday’s press conference, the NC NAACP reported on the continued legal challenge to this requirement and urged voters to make their voices heard at the polls in March “despite the obstacles.”
