(c) 2014 Shannon Woodloe
Guest post by Rev. Dr. Donald Morton of The Complexities of Color.
The hyper-criminalization of black bodies and feelings of Black Lives Mattering began long before the February 26, 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, FL. There is a longstanding and stubborn national history of physical and psychological abuse perpetrated against people of color. What is more sobering, however, is the institutionalized racism existing in militarized police departments.
Moral Monday, a protest movement originated by Rev. Dr. William Barber in North Carolina, began in Delaware in order to bring an immovable object face to face with an unstoppable force. We arrest too much. We prosecute too much. We imprison too many and further perpetuate other dehumanizing behaviors that disproportionately impact people of color. The Moral Monday movement is a call for justice, a demand to end abuse of minority groups by those in power, and a challenge to all of us to stop societal acceptance of such abuse.
(c) 2014 Shannon Woodloe
The first Moral Monday on December 15th drew hundreds of people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic levels and beliefs to Wilmington to protest the laws and circumstances that make it possible for police officers to kill black men with impunity. The protesters marched to a high-traffic intersection where, in an act of civil disobedience, they staged a die-in during the evening rush hour. On March 16th, there was a Moral Monday prayer-in on the steps of Legislative Hall in Dover to showcase the need for broad criminal justice reform and repeal of the death penalty.
Black lives matter. All lives matter. It is time to tell our elected officials that unfair treatment, discrimination and the adverse consequences of government policy will no longer be tolerated.
