Through our work this summer, I have come to realize that the two key components to effective organizing are: education and exercise. From the film festival we held a couple weeks ago on voting rights and money in politics to distributing thousands of legislative report cards, I have seen first-hand the power of education. On [...]
After interning for almost 6 weeks with Democracy NC, I have become more dedicated to getting North Carolina Central University, the school I attend, more involved with state government issues. To this end, The Winston-Salem team traveled to Durham on July 3, 2013 to talk to students at NCCU about issues currently before the state [...]
This past Monday marked the 10th wave of Moral Mondays. Since Cassy and I have attended our fair share of Moral Mondays already, we decided to switch things up a bit and set up a voter registration table. We envisioned registering an overwhelming number of people, but that did not happen. But who knew having a voter registration [...]
Yesterday we spent a rainy afternoon in the gathering place of the Intertribal Native American Counsel in Shannon, North Carolina. This was a follow-up to an initial meeting, so we saw familiar faces as well as several new ones. The gathering was unique in the fact that we essentially talked about similar issues as the [...]
Last week, I witnessed my friends and peers, students and young people from across the state, more engaged with North Carolina’s political process than anytime since the Presidential election. As I woke up from a nap late Tuesday evening, I found Facebook, Twitter, and all the various social networks my generation clings to ablaze with [...]
The Fayetteville team is continuing our advocate work serving local communities. We recently traveled to Wilmington, NC the monthly New Hanover County coalition meeting. We all gathered in the meeting room of the historic St. Stephen AME Church with a group that included prominent members of the community who are advocate leaders in the region. [...]
I have lived in the Charlotte area for about 7 years, but I had not heard of the Citizens Review Board until recently. Matt Newton, one of Democracy North Carolina’s big supporters in the area, is leading the campaign to give the Citizens Review Board the power to actually do the job it’s been tasked [...]
As a student, I am well acquainted with the phrase, “Knowledge is power.” However, I never truly understood the true meaning of this phrase until a few days ago, when we held our first Democracy Summer event. On Saturday morning, June 22, we held a film festival in the Forsyth County Public Library, “Justice Denied [...]
Of all the times for us to have taken on this internship, we feel blessed to be interning for Democracy NC right now. From Moral Mondays to the Supreme Court decisions, we are witnessing something truly historic in this state and nation. This past Monday was the biggest Moral Monday yet, with thousands of protesters [...]
On Wednesday June 27, 2013, Charlotte team got a chance to protest against the Duke rate hikes in front of the Mecklenburg county courthouse. We fired people up by leading chants and passing out petitions. We also got the chance to be citizen advocates by giving our testimonies on the stand! This was my first [...]