RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on the “Moral March on Raleigh” (all times local):
2:35 p.m.
Thousands are rallying in downtown Raleigh at an annual social justice march that’s focused this year on protecting voting rights and ending gerrymandering.
Arlene Thomas of Burlington tells The News & Observer of Raleigh that she attended the “Moral March on Raleigh” on Saturday because the 2016 election turned the formerly apolitical 68-year-old into an activist.
The new president of the state NAACP chapter spoke at an early rally. The Rev. Anthony Spearman said the turnout in the rain showed a “proven commitment to the movement and to the third reconstruction.”
The executive director of the state GOP said on Facebook that it’s disappointing that the rally speakers didn’t “celebrate the best North Carolina economy in two decades.”
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4:55 a.m.
The brother of a civil rights activist murdered almost 50 years ago in Mississippi is among those scheduled to speak at an annual march for social justice in North Carolina’s capital.
The state chapter of the NAACP is sponsoring Saturday’s “Moral March on Raleigh.” Speakers include David Goodman. His brother Andrew was one of three activists killed by Ku Klux Klansmen in 1964 near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
The 12th edition of the annual march is billed as encouraging people to move from protests to the ballot box.
For the first time since it began in 2007, the march isn’t led by the Rev. William Barber, who also founded the “Moral Monday” movement.
The new president of the state chapter of the NAACP, the Rev. Anthony Spearman, will lead the march instead.
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