The Role of Black Women in the Democratic Party

[wildeyed]

24. I think maybe Rev. Barber wrote about the coalition

in his new book. He is an exceptional leader. The book is not out yet, but will be soon.

http://www.beacon.org/The-Third-Reconstruction-P1139.aspx?ItemId=9607

At a time when divide-and-conquer politics are exacerbating racial strife and economic inequality, Rev. Barber offers an impassioned, historically grounded argument that Moral Mondays are hard evidence of an embryonic Third Reconstruction in America.

The first Reconstruction briefly flourished after Emancipation, and the second Reconstruction ushered in meaningful progress in the civil rights era. But both were met by ferocious reactionary measures that severely curtailed, and in many cases rolled back, racial and economic progress. This Third Reconstruction is a profoundly moral awakening of justice-loving people united in a fusion coalition powerful enough to reclaim the possibility of democracy—even in the face of corporate-financed extremism.

In this memoir of how Rev. Barber and allies as diverse as progressive Christians, union members, and immigration-rights activists came together to build a coalition, he offers a trenchant analysis of race-based inequality and a hopeful message for a nation grappling with persistent racial and economic injustice.

Here is an op-ed he wrote as well that talks a bit about NC's recent history and his vision for the future. And BTW, I am so in for this. It is hopeful, positive and something we all can do, regardless of the political climate. Interesting to think that simple friendship can be such a powerful, subversive tool.

I pre-ordered the book. Should be here in mid-January.

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article49307020.html

We have witnessed the power of friendships like ours in the Moral Movement that arose in North Carolina in 2005. Our coalition partners demonstrated their power in the 2008 presidential election when North Carolina’s electoral college votes went to a Democrat, breaking the solid South. This victory led to yet another violent backlash of mystery money, gerrymandering and the extreme makeover of our state government in the 2013 legislative session. “Moral Mondays” became the largest state-based civil disobedience campaign in U.S. history because fusion friendships like ours refused to give in to extremists’ assault.