Largest Moral Monday crowd yet floods downtown Raleigh

Largest Moral Monday crowd yet floods downtown Raleigh

RALEIGH, N.C. — With teachers hoisting signs that read “First in Flight, 48th in Education” and wearing “red for public ed,” the largest crowd of “Moral Monday” demonstrators this summer filled downtown Halifax Mall outside the North Carolina Legislative Building on Monday afternoon.

“It is the biggest crowd yet,” said Glen Allen, chief of the state capital police force.

Though state lawmakers went home Friday after a historic session that brought cuts to education, new voting restrictions, tax cuts for corporations, tougher regulations on abortion providers and a host of other new laws and policies, demonstrators still rallied and marched.

A steady stream of protesters marched from Halifax Mall, near the legislative building, to the area of Fayetteville Street in front of the historic Capitol. Raleigh police had blocked the street to traffic.

Speakers, including the Rev. William Barber II, addressed the crowd, which included spectators looking down from a downtown parking deck.

This was the13th Moral Monday protest of the summer.