In what has become ground zero in the national fight against voter suppression, thousands were expected to protest outside a federal courthouse in North Carolina on Monday marking the outset of a landmark trial which will determine if Republican-backed changes made to state voting laws discriminate against minority voters.
“This is our Selma,” proclaimed Dr. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP which, along with the Advancement Project and the U.S. Department of Justice, launched the suit against the state.
In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court voted to remove key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, North Carolina’s GOP-dominated legislature has led other states in passing a slew of new voting restrictions. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in the past five years, 21 states have put in place new voting restrictions .
The North Carolina Voter Information and Verification Act of 2013 includes measures such as cutting same-day registration, restricting early voting and registration, and mandating new hurdles for obtaining photo IDs—each of which, Barber notes, disproportionately impacts the state’s minority voters.
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“North Carolina is the test case for the national anti-democracy forces who desperately seek to constrict the new, multi-cultural, southern electorate,” wrote Barber, who is the leader of the Moral Monday protest movement, in an op-ed ahead of the trial opening.
After its passage, law expert Richard Hasen described the legislation as “the most sweeping anti-voter law in at least decades.”
As the state government faces off against voting rights advocates, tens of thousands of protesters are expected to march outside the Winston-Salem federal courthouse on Monday evening. The demonstration, which is set to start at 5 PM EDT, will begin and end at Corpening Plaza, two blocks from the U.S. District Courthouse.
On Sunday evening, 1,200 people packed a Winston-Salem church service to hear faith leaders galvanize the movement.
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