After another year of devastating legislative attacks on poor people and low-wage workers by the NC General Assembly, it’s time for North Carolinians from across the state to take back the mic from the extremists and tell our elected leaders that we refuse to do anything but go Forward Together, Not One Step Back.

The people of North Carolina are suffering:

• Over 40% of the state are poor or low-income: over 4 million residents.
• Over 1 million North Carolinians still lack health insurance.
• Nearly 2 million North Carolinians earn less than a minimum living wage of $15/hour, 37% of the workforce.
• Average household debt rose 6% in 2022 to an average of $56,590 in North Carolina.

That’s why we’re calling for a Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers’ State House Assembly and Moral March on Raleigh and to the Polls on March 2, 2024! The Forward-Together Moral Monday movement last held a mass People’s Assembly in February 2020 before Covid, and it’s time now for the same coalition of North Carolinians with new and old friends to come together to show the General Assembly that our votes are our demands! North Carolina is joining thirty states across the nation holding simultaneous assemblies and marches at their state capitals on March 2nd, as a part of 40 weeks of action beginning February 5 leading to the November elections.

• GATHER: 10am on the South Side of the State Capitol (1 E. Morgan Street)
• MARCH & RALLY: 11am at NC General Assembly (16 W. Jones Street)

Instead of addressing the crises of poverty and low wages, lack of healthcare, underfunded public education, voter suppression, and environmental collapse, extremists leading the NC General Assembly have slashed taxes for the wealthy and corporations, promoted a culture of fear and hate, failed to fully fund public education, and cut protections for the most vulnerable North Carolinians. Politicians from both parties like to brag about North Carolina being ranked the #1 state for business the past two years, but Oxfam’s recent report shows that North Carolina is ranked #52 when it comes to conditions for workers in our state.

The NC General Assembly is doing all of this at a time when poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in this nation, more than gun violence, obesity, homicide, and diabetes, in the richest nation in the world. And to cap off the destructive legislative session, they passed an anti-democratic state budget with massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

The NC General Assembly’s deceptive and deadly attacks aimed against Black and civil rights history, women, the LGBTQ+ community, workers, immigrants, students, teachers, and everyday North Carolinians, while making it easier to get a gun and easier to poison our water, promotes a devastating agenda that hurts all of us.

In honor of all those who have given their lives to secure and protect the sacred right to vote, we are going to Raleigh to deliver a moral indictment of the cynical priorities and immoral policies of the leadership of the North Carolina General Assembly. The extreme attacks coming out of the NC General Assembly make the need to revive and build upon a progressive vision and movement in North Carolina all the more urgent. We can build the North Carolina we believe in if we expand our democracy to all North Carolinians.  

In North Carolina, there are 3,464,018 poor and low-income eligible voters, including 2,326,099 White voters, 107,347 Latino voters, 26,403 Asian voters, 885,990 Black voters and 34,966 Indigenous voters. Together, they account for 41.45% of the electorate in North Carolina. If 19% of low-wage workers who haven’t voted before began to use their voice at the ballot box, we could shift the entire electorate in North Carolina. We have power!

For the soul of our democracy, we are coming together to push for a moral revival in North Carolina and the realization of a Third Reconstruction to heal the state and nation.

If you believe in living wages, ending poverty, fully funding public education, universal health care, environmental justice, voting rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights, criminal justice reform, LGBTQ rights, gun control, fair taxes and a North Carolina for all of us then join us on March 2, 2024 in Raleigh.

We gather at 10am for a short program and then march at 11am to the NC General Assembly (16 W. Jones Street) for the rally and assembly.