Statement from the Rev. Dr.

William J Barber

The language of our state’s Constitution adopted after the Civil War is lofty and
grand in its ideals. It states, “We the people of the State of North Carolina ,
grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for the preservation of
the American Union and the existence of our civil, political, and religious
liberties.” Each state official has taken an oath to uphold the State
Constitution. North Carolina ’s founding principle was the people expressed in
terms of “we.” Its moral framework was that the same God who calls us to do
justice and love mercy, and to care for the least of us, was also the hand of
providence behind the formation of our state with the commitment to protect the
civil, political, and religious rights of all our citizens. The HKonJ Coalition
partners are once again calling upon us to remember and act upon these grand
principles.

While we have made progress, the State of North Carolina is not yet fully
upholding its founding principles. Far too many of our children languish in
poverty and are in schools that are underfunded and underperforming. Our
undocumented sisters and brothers are being terrorized by ICE immigration raids
and racial profiling on their jobs and in their homes Many of our people are
without health care or health insurance; many of our people are making minimum
wage not a living wage; large numbers of our people live in substandard inhumane
housing; large numbers of our people are affected by global warming evidenced by
Hurricane Katrina; large portions of our poor are warehoused in prisons and
affected by racist drug laws.. Right now we’re putting more money into
incarceration per year, more money into prisons. If you take the budgets of our
historically black colleges and universities - Winston Salem State , Fayetteville
State , North Carolina Central, A & T, and Elizabeth City – take all five of their
budgets combined, and we’re putting more money in prison than we’re putting into
state-funded historically black colleges and universities.

North Carolina’s motto is “Esse Quam Videri” to be rather than to seem. However,
we are not protecting the very liberties we claim are so valuable abroad when we
as a State have not truly acknowledged or redressed years of racial and economic
discrimination and decades of racial violence. We fall far too short of who we
claim to be in our motto and constitution. Too many of the bills of the people are
never heard or shown in the light of day. And so, we the people will continue to
come to Raleigh . We the people will continue to demand that the General Assembly
remember it is our house. We the people are unifying our efforts. We the people,
directed by faith and focus, are determined to infuse a fresh ethic in the veins
of NC politics and to work until North Carolina is true its motto and the promise
within its constitution. We the people intend on seeing this through. This is not
a moment, but a movement!

Join us by signing on to support the Historic Thousands on Jones Street 14 Point

People’s Agenda.