The news conference marked exactly 60 years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus.
The conference announced the new “It’s Our Time, It’s Our Vote” campaign, with one of its goals to push voter registration for 80 days until registration cutoff for the spring primary elections.
“Rosa sat down that we might stand up,” said the Rev. William Barber II, president of the N.C. NAACP, at the conference. “Too many sacrifices have gone on for us not to fight for and exercise the right to vote.”
The conference, held at Martin Street Baptist Church in Raleigh, brought together Democracy North Carolina, the state’s NAACP and various faith leaders to discuss the launch of the voting movement.
Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, said there are four components to the campaign — voter education, voter registration, voter protection and voter mobilization.
“We will deploy hundreds of volunteers to the polls in March to help voters, to protect the vote, to document how fairly this new law is being implemented,” Hall said.
More than 3,000 churches and faith centers will be engaged in the campaign, and Hall said it won’t stop there. Voter education will also be provided in locations such as salons, social clubs and schools.
Barber said the state has more than 600,000 unregistered white, 280,000 unregistered black and 100,000 unregistered Latino voters — all of whom could make a difference with their votes.