North Carolinians gathered at the state assembly building on Monday to peacefully protest the legislature’s radical agenda, which includes reinstating the death penalty, repealing the Racial Justice Act, rescinding felons’ right to vote after they’ve done their time, refusing a Medicaid expansion for 500,000 people under Obamacare, and above all, making it more difficult for ordinary people to vote. Yesterday’s action, dubbed “Moral Monday” was the fourth in a series of demonstrations organized by the NAACP and its allies.

Fifty-seven protesters were arrested yesterday out of a crowd of about 500 protesters. Organizers expect even more arrests on June 3. 

Many of these bills are prefab legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative organization that churns out cookie-cutter bills to restrict voting rights, collective bargaining rights, environmental protection, and other issues. 

Watch this video produced by Story of America to learn more about Moral Monday: Historians, pastors, and a pediatrician explain why they’re using civil disobedience to save voting rights for all in North Carolina. The state is doing everything it can to make it difficult to vote, from abolishing early voting to restricting the voting rights of felons who have already paid their debt to society. As one historian explains, North Carolina is taking a step backwards to an era where most poor people (black and white, alike) couldn’t vote because of anti-democratic restrictions. State legislators wantsto ensure that the people most likely to challenge its agenda are silenced at the polls, but the Moral Monday protesters aren’t going to let them. 

[Photo credit: Scene from a Moral Monday protest, sja7943, Creative Commons.]