WS Chronicle

In above photo: NC NAACP logo (File photo)

By Cash Michaels

Editor of The Carolinian

The N.C .NAACP is urging all to take part in the North Carolina leg of “America’s Journey for Justice,” scheduled to come through the state starting Saturday, Aug. 29.

A national coalition led by the national NAACP and its president/CEO, Cornell William Brooks, “America’s Journey for Justice” is a 40-day, 860-mile protest march which began in Selma, Alabama, on Aug.1 from the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights marchers were beaten and attacked by Alabama state troopers as they marched for voting rights in March 1965.

The modern-day Journey for Justice is routed from Alabama, through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, finally arriving in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 15.

The North Carolina leg of the march is scheduled to reach the state Aug. 29 through Sept. 7, before it moves on to Virginia.

Marchers from across the nation will say to the nation and world family, “Our lives, our votes, our jobs, and our schools matter,” the NAACP, a major coalition in the march, says.

With each state stopped in, a designated issue of concern to African-Americans – such as fairness in the criminal justice system, jobs with sustainable wages, improved public education, and protection of voting rights – is addressed.

In North Carolina, according to N.C. NAACP President Rev. Dr. William Barber II, the issue is voting rights because the state has become “the national battleground for voting rights.”

“In an effort to challenge a regressive Southern legislature and Congress’ failure to act on strengthening the Voting Rights Act, the N.C. NAACP, the Forward Together Moral Movement, and other justice-loving North Carolinians from across the state will join the march and continue on across the Virginia state line,” Barber said in a statement.

Thus, a major “Rally for Voting Rights” featuring Barber and Brooks, among others, will be held at the State Capitol in Raleigh on Thursday, Sept. 3, with activities beginning at 5 p.m.

Leading up to that, Brooks will take part in a Monday, Aug. 24 Moral Monday Livestream online to promote the Sept. 3 rally.

On Aug. 29, marchers are expected to enter North Carolina from South Carolina at U.S. Highway 1 near Rockingham County at the state line.

Later that evening, there will be a Journey for Justice Youth and Cultural Artist Teach-in, 7:30 p.m. at Southern Middle School, 717 Johnson St. in Aberdeen.

On Monday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m., the Journey for Justice Voting Rights Teach-in will be at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, 1801 Hillsborough St. in Raleigh, and on Sept. 1 at 10 a.m. at various congressional offices across the state, there will be simultaneous press conferences on voting rights action.

Supporters from across the state seeking to join the Journey for Justice March while its in North Carolina may sign up by logging onto www.naacpnc.org, and click onto the American Journey for Justice tab, or call 919-682-4700.