Moral Monday in Washington, DC: a fitting beginning for The Sandhills Circle of the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign
Activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet. - Toni Morrison
About a dozen of us gathered in a parking lot just off of Sandhills Blvd. in Aberdeen, NC at 1:15 a.m. on Monday, June 2, 2025 to board the bus that would take us to Washington, DC. Most of the people in the parking lot had responded to an email or Facebook posts inviting them to join us for the trip to take part in a Moral Monday in the nation’s capitol. Four of us helped plan the trip as the inaugural activity of a reconstituted Sandhills Circle of the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign. The bus arrived from Wilson, NC, a few minutes after 1:30 a.m., bringing a couple of passengers with it. We quickly boarded and settled in for the ride to Sanford, NC, to pick up a few more riders before continuing to Washington.
Arthur Johnson from Wilson (front right). Seated directly behind Arthur, Atty. Alan McSurely with his wife, Sandhills Circle Chair Olinda Watkins-McSurely.
We were lead by NC Poor People’s Campaign Sandhills Circle Chair O’Linda Watkins-McSurely. Meeting up with Bishop William J. Barber II for a Moral Monday is an entirely appropriate way to initiate the new Sandhills Circle. O’Linda was one of the 17 people arrested with Rev. Barber in the original Moral Monday on April 29, 2013. Her husband, Al, was one of the architects of the Moral Movement. A lot of us on the bus were veterans of the original Moral Mondays. What began as a highly successful moral movement at the North Carolina General Assembly had now expanded into a national movement with direct nonviolent actions in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
At about 8:30 a.m. we arrived at St. Marks Episcopal Church In Washington, DC for snacks, fellowship, music, non-violent training, and a briefing of the day’s activities.
At around 11:00 a.m. we proceeded from St. Marks for several blocks to the front steps of the Supreme Court Building for the Moral Monday Rally to make the case for a moral budget. In a country where the Supreme Court has equated money with speech, we were there for the people who lacked the amplification to be heard. Clergy, issue experts, and directly affected individuals bore moral witness against laws that favor those who have the most at the expense of those who can least afford it. A budget that pays for tax cuts for the rich by cutting food assistance to middle class and poor people is an immoral budget.
After the rally, we marched for a couple of blocks to the Capitol Building. Several people from the group volunteered to take petitions to deliver directly to the offices of senators and representatives. Nine people went into the Rotunda to pray. When they declined the Capitol Police’s commands to stop praying and leave the premises, they were arrested for civil disobedience.
While others went inside the Capitol, the riders from our bus made their way back to St. Marks to reboard for the trip home. One adventure completed and a larger adventure just begun - another intriguing way to “pay the rent”.