MEDIA RELEASE
July 14, 2023
Wake the Sleeping Giant
Moral Monday Rally Confronts Legislative Carnage
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – – While the NCGA unleashes its extreme and violent agenda on the people, Bishop.
William J. Barber II will lead the “Charlotte Moral Monday Rally: Wake the Sleeping Giant” on
Monday, July 24, at 6:30pm at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center, 600 E.
Fourth St., in Uptown. The event is sponsored by the Southern Piedmont Circle of the N.C. Poor
People’s Campaign in partnership with local organizations and congregations.
In addition to Rev. Dr. Barber, the event will feature a number of speakers, including persons who are
impacted by poverty, racism, and discrimination against immigrants; as well as local Charlotte clergy
leaders from across the religious spectrum. Musical performances will also be included in the
program. This event is community-wide, non-partisan, and non-violent. All are welcome from around
region & state.
The Southern Piedmont Circle is the local Charlotte-area chapter of the national Poor People’s
Campaign (PPC), launched five years ago by Co-Chairs, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz
Theoharis. On July 3rd, Bishop Barber declared in his Moral Declaration for America, “We find
ourselves amid an orchestrated moral crisis, and it is up to people of moral conscience to hold this
nation accountable to itself.”
The PPC: A National Call for Moral Revival seeks to make the nation and
its leaders aware of the millions of people, families, and children impacted by poverty and financial
insecurity—and demand changes in public policy—as well as calling attention to issues related to
economic and healthcare inequities, racial injustice and voter suppression, and the climate crisis.
Prior to the launch of this national movement, Barber led the state-wide initiative in North Carolina
known as the Moral Monday Movement during the 2010’s, in which tens of thousands of North
Carolinians participated in marches and rallies at the State Capitol, conducted community organizing,
and engaged in civil disobedience, in order to raise awareness regarding similar issues as those listed
above, speak truth to power to state elected officials, and work to change public policy.
As part of his current leadership of the PPC and his affiliate organization known as Repairers of the
Breach, Dr. Barber has also recently called for reactivation of Moral Monday’s in light of extreme
legislation once again being enacted by the N.C. State Legislature.
The Poor People’s Campaign is named in honor of—and was re-launched to continue the work under
the same name—of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated while striving to get
the original organization off the ground in the late 1960’s as part of the Civil Rights Movement.
For more information and media instructions for covering the Charlotte Moral Monday on July 24, please
contact Samantha Turner, Southern Piedmont Circle Tri-Chair and lead organizer of Charlotte Moral
Monday, at the following: (631) 943-2189 samanthacltppc@gmail.com
Recent Comments