Public Employee Press

Southern activist fires up delegates

On Thursday morning, July 17, 4,000 AFSCME convention delegates heard a speech by the Rev. Dr. William Barber that swept through the giant hall like a blast of wind off Lake Michigan and brought them to their feet a dozen times.

Barber, the pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, N.C., and president of the North Carolina NAACP filled the air with hope and the excitement of new possibilities. In recent years he has been building a statewide coalition uncommon in the South - multiracial, multi-issue and reaching out to rural communities that are usually Republican strongholds.

"In a Southern state, an African American is leading a multiracial movement that I believe represents the majority of the people of the state," said civil rights lawyer Penda Hair. Duke University Professor Timothy Tyson called Barber "the most important progressive political leader in this state in generations."

Since the Republican Party took over the North Carolina Legislature and governor's mansion in 2010 and 2012, Republicans have eliminated the state earned-income tax credit for 900,000 people, refused Medicaid coverage for 500,000, ended federal unemployment benefits for 170,000 and enacted the country's harshest voting restrictions.

Barber has responded with Moral Mondays - weekly protests with activists holding peaceful sit-ins in the Statehouse. The protests have grown, and up to 1,000 people have been arrested at a time, many for the first time.

"The same people fighting against labor rights are fighting against civil rights. So if they are together, by God, we ought to get together and fight them back," Barber said.

The movement has spread to South Carolina, where activists have launched Truthful Tuesdays, demonstrating for Medicaid expansion and voting rights.

"There's a sense of enthusiasm pushing people to move," said Brett Bursey, director of the South Carolina Progressive Network.

Barber's enthusiasm, insight and oratory certainly moved the convention delegates.

— Alfredo Alvarado