Tens of thousands of people marched in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday to protest the far-right policies of the state’s Republican government. The “Moral March” was an outgrowth of last year’s “Moral Mondays” protests, 13 weeks of actions against what critics call a Republican assault on poor people, the unemployed, voting rights, education, the environment, healthcare and women’s rights. Protest organizer, Rev. William Barber, the head of the NAACP in North Carolina, said Republican policies have forced marginalized communities to stand together.

Rev. William Barber: “We have been called together to fight against a dangerous agenda of extremist laws by the ultra-conservative right wing that is choosing the low road, policies that are constitutionally inconsistent, morally indefensible and economically insane. It’s extreme, and it’s mighty low, to cut Medicaid for more than 500,000 people in a state of 1.7 million poor people and knowing that 2,800 will die. It’s mighty low to raise taxes on 900,000 poor people and working citizens in order to lower taxes for 23 of the wealthiest families.”

More than 1,000 people were arrested in the Moral Mondays protests last year. Estimates of Saturday’s turnout reached as high as 100,000 people. Rev. Barber ended his remarks with a tribute to the diversity of groups coming together to march as one.

Rev. William Barber: “We are black. We are white. We are Latino. We are Native American. We are Democrat. We are Republican. We are independent. We are people of faith. We are people not of faith, but who, though they are secular, they still believe in a moral universe. We are people. We are natives and immigrants. We are business leaders and workers and unemployed. We are doctors and the uninsured. We are gay. We are straight. We are students. We are parents. We are retirees. We are North Carolina. We are America. And we are here, and we ain’t going nowhere!”