JACKSON, Miss.- The “Moral Movement” is a week-long movement to promote morality across the state of Mississippi along with 11 other states hitting on pressing issues effecting the public. Thursday, Mississippi leaders came together to join this movement with hopes that government leaders will back up their decision with their morals. The Moral Monday movement was created by activists who protested North Carolina’s General Assembly.
Nearly 51 years ago this week, Martin Luther King, Jr. pushed the 250,000-strong March on Washington audience to “go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.”
The Rev. William J. Barber II, president of the NAACP in North Carolina and organizer of the Moral Monday movement, announced that Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin would join together in this movement and live out the words of Martin Luther King Jr.
The week of the Moral Movement is to bring awareness to seven issues; one issue a day. The objective is for these activists to call out governors and state legislatures to take notice and to address these concerns.
The week will focus on a different social justice theme each day, starting with labor rights and fair wage issues this Friday, followed by education, criminal justice, equal protection under the law (such as LGBT rights and immigration status), women’s rights, environmental justice and health care coverage.
Head of Mississippi Association of State Employees Brenda Scott said that because they are just getting started, instead of seven days of action, they want to start off with two successful days instead. One of those days being today and the other will be the rally the organizers of the “Moral Movement” will hold a week from now, August 28.
Leaders of the “Moral Movement” are urging supporters to join the rally and stand up for their rights. The rally was set for 4 p.m. Aug. 28 on the steps of the Capitol, but construction may require a different location.
