The Moral Monday protests that swept Raleigh last year have spread beyond North Carolina’s borders into neighboring states, broadening the grassroots push into a regional movement.
Activists in South Carolina and Georgia are challenging recent state policies passed by their majority-Republican governments, with both states holding protests last week — and grassroots campaigns for the year are in the works. Moral Mondays took root in North Carolina in April, resulting in nearly 1,000 arrests.
And activists are aiming to energize the whole region.
“We want to see the Moral Monday movement as a Southern strategy,” said Tim Franzen, the Georgia Peace and Conflict Resolution program director at the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization involved in Georgia’s Moral Mondays.
“When people started putting their freedom on the line (in North Carolina), people all over the country started paying attention.”
While North Carolina has served as the model for these protests, each state hopes to address unique issues, Franzen said.
South Carolina, inspired by North Carolina’s Moral Mondays, has coined its protests “Truthful Tuesdays,” said Brett Bursey, director of the South Carolina Progressive Network, a left-leaning organization involved in the movement.
Bursey said his group is advocating for Medicaid expansion, after South Carolina declined to expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
“The government’s argument is that there’s no money, and it’s the same excuse they’ve been using for years to not fund K-12 and higher education,” Bursey said. “Their argument is we can’t afford it, but we know better.”
