NAACP "Journey for Justice" to arrive in North Carolina this weekend
Published August 25, 2015
by Rob Schofield, NC Policy Watch, August 25, 2015.
In case you hadn’t noticed, something new and important is afoot in the country. It’s often messy and unscripted and at times downright disorganized, but it’s also genuine, born of the grassroots, brimming with potential and very likely to be around for a while.
The subject, of course, is the newly energized civil rights movement that is fast emerging across post-Ferguson America. Spurred initially by the power of modern technology and, in particular, the ability of smartphones to document the terror that so many people rightfully and tragically experience with respect to the law enforcement officers who are sworn to serve and protect them, the movement is fast branching out to merge with other extant social justice causes like the fight for living wages, voting rights and the effort to save public education.
Six and half years ago, this would not have seemed possible or, perhaps, even necessary. After all, the country had just elected its first President of color and there was a palpable sense that perhaps we had finally really reached a fundamental turning point in the national dialogue over race and equality.
Sadly however, as we have been reminded repeatedly during the last several years, one should never underestimate the power of fear — especially fear fanned by a massive global recession and billions of dollars in plutocrat-funded fairy tales – to chase people back into their shells of selfishness and exclusion.
A powerful response emerges
And so here we are in the summer of 2015 contemplating a combination of both dreadful and encouraging news items.
The bad news is that fear and ignorance still reign in many circles. Innocent people (almost always African-Americans) still regularly find themselves unfairly enmeshed in dangerous and even deadly encounters with law enforcement. Meanwhile, a thoroughly moderate national leader is still savaged on a daily basis with every imaginable defamatory label for advancing proposals that would be greeted with yawns if proposed by a white president.
The good news, however, is that a fast-growing number of people of all races and backgrounds have simply had it with the bad news. It may have been difficult at times to rouse people to action when the public debate was over the latest regressive tax complexity, another thinly-veiled move to sell off our public schools to Wall Street investors or even a new restriction on the right to vote, but when people can see a video of an innocent person being shot in the back because of what he looks like, it’s hard to stay silent. And when people finally grasp that both things (the regressive policies and the shootings) are often born of the same kinds of fear and ignorance – well, then we’re really getting somewhere.
One exciting example of how this powerful awareness has taken hold and come together in recent weeks and months will be on display in North Carolina starting this weekend when the NAACP’s “Journey for Justice” march reaches the state. As you may have become aware by now, the Journey for Justice is an unprecedented march that blends some of the best traditions of the 20th Century Civil Rights movement with the best of the new and emerging activism of the current era.
The 860 mile march – and it is a real march – commenced way back on August 1 in the iconic movement city of Selma, Alabama. Since that time, marchers have been proceeding – a few miles a day through Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. This Saturday, August 29, the marchers are scheduled to cross the border into North Carolina. Later they’ll proceed through Virginia and into the District of Columbia for an historic rally at the Lincoln Memorial on September 16.
This is from the North Carolina NAACP:
“On August 1, the NAACP kicked off America’s Journey for Justice. We’re marching across the South to the steps of our nation’s Capital to shout “Our lives, our votes, our jobs, our schools matter.” And we refuse to be ignored.The march will enter North Carolina on August 29th. The route is 206 miles and will last 10 days. There will be vehicles following the marchers for those who need to take a break throughout the day.
AJFJ marchers will be provided with breakfast, a boxed lunch, and dinner each day that they participate. Marchers will sleep in churches and different anchor locations along the route.
Marchers will leave from designated anchor locations every morning to begin marching by 7:30 AM and be dropped off by bus where the marchers stopped the day before. They will be brought back to the anchor locations every afternoon at 4:00 PM for teach-ins, entertainment, and fellowship.”
And here is the list of common sense and common decency demands the marchers are making:
“National standards for the use of force for all law enforcement agents, and the passage of the End Racial Profiling Act,Federal Action to ensure every student has access to safe, high quality education, regardless of location or household income,
Federal prioritization of job creation and training and passage of the Raise the Wage Act and Paycheck Fairness Act,
That Congress restore, strengthen and advance the 1965 Voting Rights Act by passing the Voting Rights Advancement Act.”
And here, perhaps most importantly, are some tips from organizers on how you can get involved:
“Can I join the march for one day?Yes! Day marchers will meet other participants at a designated location at 6:30 AM each morning. They can park their cars and will take a bus to the location where the march ended the day before. They will take a bus back to the same location in the late afternoon around 4:00 PM. Day marchers are welcome to stay for the evening teach-in and dinner. Day marchers can register online.
Can I join the march for a few hours or miles?
Yes! However, the NC NAACP will not be able to provide you a ride back to your vehicle unless you have parked at the designated location and ride the bus at the end of the day. Some faith communities and organizations are arranging their own transportation for their members that will only walk part of the day. Individuals can arrange to be dropped off and picked up.
We will post our location several times throughout the day on Twitter @ncnaacp and on Facebook.
If you choose to arrange your own transportation, please still register online if you plan on eating lunch with us.”
And for those for whom joining the marchers along the road is not an option, be sure to mark your calendar for next week when the march comes to Raleigh. A rally is planned for downtown on the afternoon of Thursday September 3. Other activities will take place at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in the days surrounding the rally. You can click here to follow along online and receive electronic updates.
The specific focus of the stay in North Carolina for the marchers next week will be voting rights – an issue that is painfully apt given the aggressive actions of state leaders in recent years to roll back decades of hard fought progress. Ultimately, however, it is something more than access to the ballot box that will sustain the Journey for Justice. For more and more average Americans, the time has simply arrived to say “no more” to politics and policies driven by fear and division that, ultimately, put the lives of innocent citizens at risk.
Hope to see you next week.
