UNC students flock to Raleigh for historic annual rally

Large crowds leave deep footprints — or that’s what Tar Heels and other students across North Carolina are hoping as the Historic Thousands on Jones Street rally approaches.

College students from UNC-CH and other N.C. schools — like East Carolina University, UNC-Charlotte, Western Carolina and N.C. Central University — plan to gather Saturday near the State Capitol to participate in this year’s march, which has been named Moral March in reference to the Moral Monday movement.

Dinesh McCoy, co-director of outreach at the Campus Y, said 170 UNC-CH students signed up to go on the three buses headed for Raleigh.

The buses are being funded by various campus organizations, including the Campus Y and UNC-CH’s chapter of the NAACP. All three buses for the trip have been filled, and the organizations have suspended sign-up for the trip, McCoy said.

“I am definitely blown away … last year there wasn’t even enough students organized to fill one bus,” he said.

UNC-CH is not the only school to see interest increase in the annual rally.

Seven Duke University students signed up in 2013, but that number has skyrocketed to 75 this year, said Adrienne Harreveld, a member of Duke Students for Democratic Society.

Because the interest in the rally was not expected, Duke has worked out an elaborate carpooling system along with a van to carry students to the rally, she said.

“I feel like we as students and residents in North Carolina have a commitment to show that we are fighting back against the injustices that have been passed in our legislature,” Harreveld said.

UNC-CH junior Catherine Crowe said attending the rally last year helped change her perspective on politics and the difference people could make with legislators.

“I went last year, and that was the first action I had attended,” she said. “It changed my whole understanding of what it meant to organize and how many people care and how many people are affected by the government in North Carolina.”

Julia McKeown, a UNC-CH student who spoke at the pre-rally hosted by Campus Y Tuesday night, said she wanted to attend the rally on Saturday because she felt minority voices were being silenced in recent legislation.

“I think that this HKonJ rally, this march, is a way for everybody to come together and be loud,” she said. “Not necessarily screaming or anything like that, but just to have a presence and to say, ‘We are here, and we matter.’”

McKeown said she hoped that the UNC-CH students who attend the rally would gain a new insight on what it really means to be an activist.

“I hope they take away the idea that they can make a difference, and that there are people who really do care about these issues,” she said. “Activism isn’t just something you sit in a classroom and talk about; it is something you go out and fight for.”

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