Tallahassee, FL – More than 200 people from Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami met at the steps of The Old Capitol in Tallahassee for Florida’s first Moral Monday rally, March 3. The NAACP organized the rally and was joined by other coalition members. Protesters discussed a people’s agenda for the next 60 days of the Florida legislative session, which began on March 4.

The rally was modeled after the giant Moral Monday rallies in North Carolina. Moral Mondays are a response to the North Carolina General Assembly’s extreme right-wing attacks on working people, women, immigrants and African Americans. Facing the Florida legislature's equally extreme right-wing politicians and Republican Governor Rick Scott, protesters demanded a state government committed to justice for working and oppressed people.

Protesters united behind the demands for affordable health care and Medicaid expansion, ex-felon rights restoration, jobs, public education, voting rights and an end to Governor Scott's infamous voter purges.

Out of all the demands spoken about during the rally, higher wages, ending Stand Your Ground laws, and freedom for 33-year-old African American mother Marissa Alexander received the most enthusiasm from the crowd. Alexander, a resident of Jacksonville, received a 20-year prison sentence for firing a warning shot to fend off her abusive husband in 2012. She has a new trial scheduled for July 2014 and progressive activists across the country are mobilizing to demand her freedom. However, Florida State Attorney Corey is now seeking a 60-year sentence for Marissa Alexander. Corey is the same Florida prosecutor who notoriously flubbed the murder trials of the men who separately killed Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis.

The crowd heard from many speakers and groups, including Reverend William Barber of the North Carolina Moral Monday rallies, the NAACP, the Florida AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood and progressive churches, mosques and synagogues.

Congresswoman Corrine Brown also addressed the crowd, “The truth is when we are in politics, we only have two choices: one is the low road to destruction, and the other is the pathway to higher ground.” Invoking Dr. Martin Luther King, Barber stated, “I'm reminded that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Bearing signs that read, “We march to end racial profiling” and “We march for jobs and freedom,” the crowd chanted on the steps of the Capitol for more than four hours. Energy remained high for the entire event as activists from across Florida discussed future efforts to fight the state politicians’ right-wing policies.

#TallahasseeFL #OppressedNationalities #NAACP #AfricanAmerican #Antiracism #MoralMonday

Yadkinville, NC – About 60 people came together here, Sept. 23, to participate in the 19th installment of Moral Mondays – the offshoot Rural Moral Monday – speaking out against the Republican-controlled General Assembly and their anti-peoples policies.

In front of the Yadkin County Courthouse, speakers told their own stories of struggle in the current socio-economic conditions of rural North Carolina, ranging from immigration rights to LGBTQ rights and workers’ rights. Signs were held throughout the crowd, saying “Education is a right,” “Forward together, not one step back,” and “We fight for what we believe in.”

“We need sensible immigration reform,” says Uriel Alberto, member of El Cambio, an immigration rights and civil liberties advocacy group. “We need to attack the issue at the state-level; we need in-state tuition; we need driver’s licenses, for God’s sake. We can’t have these people driving around here without any driver’s license. Even if they wanted to put insurance on their car, they can’t. Even if they wanted to put tags on their car, they’re not able to.”

Alberto continued, “I support my dear brothers and sisters; I support my unemployed; I support the NAACP; I support civil liberties for everyone, because when someone’s civil liberty is stepped on, my civil liberty is stepped on. And that’s why we’re all here.”

As the sun fell and night time emerged, candles were then lit for the vigil held in memory of Jonathan Ferrell, a 24-year-old Charlotte man, who was unarmed and shot ten times by Charlotte police officer Randell Kerrick. The officer is being charged with voluntary manslaughter.

Reverend Kojo Nantambu, president of Charlotte/Mecklenburg branch of NAACP, brought everyone closer together near the end of the night, as the candles were being lit. The crowd began chanting, “The people united, we’ll never be defeated! The people united, we’ll never be defeated!” With the Reverend closing it, saying, “And you must believe it!”

“You’ve got to come together. You’ve got to come close. You have to be side-by-side. We can’t be spread all over the place, because we want to be like a family,” said Reverend Nantambu. “We want to be like an unbroken chain. The love that we have for each other must be able to be perceived by anybody that comes around us. They must know that I love you and you love me and that we love each other.”

The reverend continued, “The people must know that this is a movement of love; this is a movement of respect, but this is a determined movement to make a change in this very wretched and un-Godly kind of General Assembly that has no morals. Because this is a moral movement and we are a moral people. We’re excited tonight because we know, in the end, we will have victory!”

By the end of the night, the people pledged to continue their efforts in fighting back against voter suppression, homophobia and transphobia, anti-immigration, racism and anti-worker policies. The people left that night more united than ever – “Forward together, not one step back!”

#YadkinvilleNC #ImmigrantRights #MoralMonday

Asheville, NC – 10,000 people gathered in front of the Buncombe County Courthouse, overflowing into the streets in Downtown Asheville for Mountain Moral Monday, Aug. 5.

Speakers addressed the egregious statewide attacks on women, immigrants, teachers, students and workers. Many protesters had signs addressing voter suppression, in particular HB 589, which is being called “the worst voter suppression bill in the country.”

Protesters blasted Senator Tom Apodaca, who represents several counties in western North Carolina, and who recently said that the Voters Rights Act is “a headache.”

The NAACP’s Reverend William Barber responded to these comments saying, “He used the same language that the white segregationists of 1877 used when the federal troops were pulled out of the south. They said now that the power and protections have been removed we can do what we want. So they passed a bill to eliminate early voting and same day registration – to suppress the right to vote, and to allow vigilante citizens to go into any precinct and challenge people’s right to vote. They passed a bill that allows more money to be put into elections, where people can buy those who are elected. You can tell Senator Apodaca he ain’t seen a headache until you’ve seen us fight to protect the right to vote. If you think we’re going to allow any group, you must be out of your dog-gone-mind!”

Reverend Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, director of the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality spoke, “We have within us the courage and strength not just to stand up to unjust, unconstitutional and immoral laws like Amendment One and the recent voter ID bill, but also to change these laws. One things that history has made clear is that people change, laws change and our nation changes but it never ever happens on its own. It happens because people like us stand up and say ‘Forward together!’” The crowd enthusiastically replied, “Not one step back!”

Beginning in April the North Carolina NAACP organized thousands to protest every Monday at the state capitol in Raleigh to fight the Tea Party agenda being rammed through the state legislature.

Over 900 people were arrested during the protests before the North Carolina legislature ended their session on July 27. There are now plans to take these protests to all 13 North Carolina districts.

#AshevilleNC #RepublicanAgenda #voterSuppression #AmendmentOne #MoralMonday

Raleigh, NC – “Whose house? Our house!” That was the chant voiced by over 5000 North Carolinians who came to Raleigh June 24 to protest the right-wing agenda and unjust laws being passed by the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature.

The June 24 rally was the eighth wave of Moral Monday protests organized by Reverend William Barber and the North Carolina NAACP. It was largest so far. The wave of protests began on April 29, with a protest of about 100 people and 15 arrests. Since then, protests of thousands and arrests of 80 to 100 people are a common occurrence on any given Monday afternoon in Raleigh. 120 people were arrested for civil disobedience June 24, bringing the total to over 600 arrests in these waves of demonstrations.

The focus of the June 24 protest was labor, women and economic justice. United Electrical Workers Local 150, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Southern Workers Assembly, SEIU, Communication Workers of America and NC Association of Educators were among the unions represented at the protest. The AFL-CIO issued a call for all unions to mobilize for the demonstration. NC AFL-CIO president James Andrews joined the group of protesters who were arrested for civil disobedience.

Speakers denounced the legislature's attacks on workers' rights, as well as the right-wing attacks on women. “When it comes to control of a woman's body, who decides? She decides, not politicians!” said one speaker to loud applause from the crowd.

People need to protest, said Linda Suggs, a member of Black Workers for Justice and the Alliance for Retired Americans. “Unjust policies are being passed day by day, minute by minute, hour by hour. But we are not taking it lying down, no way!”

#RaleighNC #MoralMonday

Raleigh, NC – 84 people were arrested today, June 17, during the 7th wave of Moral Monday protests, while over 1000 rallied outside the North Carolina legislature to protest the right-wing policies being carried out by the Republican majority. While police loaded up buses with the arrested protesters, hundreds chanted, “You're gonna need another bus, 'cause baby there are more of us!”

With devastating efficiency, the Republican majorities in the House and Senate and Republican Governor Pat McCrory are rolling back progressive laws and regulations across the board: workers’ rights, equal access to education, unemployment benefits, environmental protection, health care access, voting rights and racial justice are all under unprecedented attack from a legislature that is dominated by ‘free market' ideology.

The June 17 protest was the seventh in a wave of weekly protests organized by Reverend William Barber and the North Carolina NAACP. The theme of this week's protest was on environmental and health care justice. Thousands have mobilized from across the state to protest the legislature since the first Moral Monday on April 29. To date more than 480 people have been arrested for acts of civil disobedience.

Evan Kolosna, an organizer with the University of North Carolina-Asheville Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the North Carolina Student Power Union, told Fight Back!, “This is directly affecting us as students – the budget cuts are targeting our schools, so I