Moral March plans swell

Political activists are rounding up support for the Moral March, a protest slated for Feb. 8, that comes after a round of changes by the state legislature over the summer.

The Rev. Curtis Gatewood, N.C. NAACP’s organizer of the march, spoke to UNC students at Campus Y on Wednesday evening about the importance of movement.

“We are in a time when it is time to love,” he said. “When you see a half million people in North Carolina being denied Medicaid, it’s time for somebody to stand up and love somebody.”

The state branch of the the NAACP organizes has organized assemblies in Raleigh on the second Saturday of February for the past seven years.

This year’s march, the Moral March, follows a thunderstorm of protests concerning multiple issues, including education and healthcare policies.

The march is expected to attract significantly more people than the about 17,000 people that attended last year’s event, said Laurel Ashton, spokeswoman for the N.C. NAACP

She said the organizers hope the Raleigh march will promote issues including less restrictive voter ID and healthcare laws.

Dr. Charles van der Horst, professor at UNC School of Medicine, said one of his main concerns and reasons to attend the rally is about the state legislature’s decision to opt out of medicaid expansions for people below the federal poverty level.

Horst was arrested at the Moral Monday protests in May.

“That means that more than 300,000 people weren’t going to be able to get health insurance last January, the first of this year,” he said

“And there are some very good studies that suggest that this could lead to an increase of about 2000 people dying per year.”

Equality N.C., an LGBT rights organization, is planning to attend the rally.

“We want to join with other progressive partners in the state and make it clear that North Carolina has weathered some storms of late,” said Jen Jones, spokesperson for Equality N.C.

“But that we are one voice, one North Carolina family and are interested in fighting for any marginal life group in the state.”

Jones says she believes the Moral March will be effective because people across the nation have become interested in the Moral Monday protests and want to see their outcome.

“I believe that is because what is happening in North Carolina, “ she says, “where people are rising up in the Moral Monday Movement that it has captured the imagination of a nation who is interested in helping our Southern state move forward on issues of equality.”

Gatewood said the future of the Moral Mondays movement will be to present a united front against the policies passed by the state legislature.

“We believe the march will be a wakeup call … It is going to help to serve as a springboard for the consciousness and the soul of this state,” he said. “And we believe that by people coming together we can now show the nation and the world that we will not go backwards.”