Groups take moral stand against GOP policies at march

• Between 80%2C000 and 100%2C000 people participated in the Moral March on Raleigh
• Moral Monday-style demostrations have spread from North Carolina to other states
• Rev. William Barber II spoke at Saturday%27s march and promised change at Southern states%27 polls in the midterm elections

RALEIGH, N.C. — The president of North Carolina's NAACP on Saturday promised another summer of protests and continued litigation in reaction to policies of the Republican-controlled state government he says are immoral.

Rev. William Barber II made the promise before a crowd of between 80,000 and 100,000 people during the Moral March on Raleigh.

"Plant America on higher ground," he said. "Lord, Lord plant our minds on higher ground. Plant our hearts on higher ground. Plant our souls on higher ground. Lord, lift us up, lift us up, lift us up and let us stand. Plant our feet on higher ground."

More than 900 people were arrested last year in his Moral Mondays protests for refusing to leave the rotunda outside the state House and Senate. Civil disobedience was not planned for Saturday, the NAACP said.

Barber's movement has spread to other states. Protesters have been arrested in Tennessee and Georgia recently in Moral Mondays-style demonstrations. South Carolina has its own version called Truthful Tuesday.

Organizers of the march made five demands:

• Secure pro-labor, anti-poverty policies that insure economic sustainability.

• Provide well-funded, quality public education for all.

• Promote health care for all, including affordable access, the expansion of Medicaid,

women's health and environmental justice in every community.

• Address the continuing disparities in the criminal justice system on the basis of race and class.

• Defend and expand voting rights, women's rights, immigrants' rights, LGBT rights and the fundamental principle of equality under the law for all people.

The march brought together a diverse group from Baptists to Muslims and gay marriage supporters to teachers and environmentalists to speak out on what Barber calls "extremism that takes us down the road to destruction."

The GOP won both the state House and Senate and elected Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in 2012, giving it complete control of North Carolina's government for the first time in more than 100 years. GOP-controlled redistricting in the state in 2010 gives Republicans an advantage.

State lawmakers last year passed a bill that will require voter identification at the polls in 2016, eliminate the first seven days of early voting and end same-day voter registration among other changes.

The U.S. Justice Department has sued the state over the new law. The state's NAACP is leading a multi-plaintiff legal challenge.

Barber has also criticized lawmakers for cutting education spending. The state budget reduced schools spending by about $282 million over two years. Teachers got no raises.

High school science teacher Sarah Duffer of Asheville, N.C, was among those in the crowd on Saturday.

She wore a necklace that once belonged to her best friend's mother, who died recently. The memorial service was Saturday but the family wanted Duffer to march in her memory instead. The necklace read "War is not healthy for children or other living things."

"For my students, it's the first time that polices that are made in Raleigh have a direct and measurable impact on their lives," she said.

Normally, Duffer said, discussion of public policy would be met with groans of boredom from students.

"But now it's like, 'Oh wow,' I can actually internalize a shrinking budget, a shrinking staff," she said.

The crowd on Saturday was diverse in age, race and interests. Union leaders and medical doctors joined ministers and gay rights activists on the stage.

"We are here sending a message in Raleigh and around the world that we will come from all corners of the nation fighting for the people who are rejected," Dominique Penny, the state NAACP's youth and college division president and a junior at Fayetteville State University.

Barber promised a change at the N.C. polls during the midterm elections this year in North Carolina and beyond.

"If you are going to change America you have to think states," Barber told reporters after the march. "And if you are going to think states you have to change Southern states."

Ostendorff also reports for the Asheville, N.C., Citizen-Times.