HKonJ 2012 photoblog

Thousands of people took to the streets today in North Carolina’s capital city. HK on J (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) is an annual civil rights and progressive issue-based march in Raleigh, NC.  The 6th annual march happened yesterday morning. It was really empowering to see so many people there supporting equality, voting rights, and social justice.  And it was great to see Rep. Miller marching too.

Here are some pics of various groups at the march. The credit for these photos goes to Jeff Shaw, the Director of Communications with the NC Justice Center. You'll notice the HAVA Heart signs scattered throughout the pictures to raise awareness about the Help America Vote Act funds that can be used for early voting sites (needed in a big turnout election year), maintaining well-functioning elections equipment (needed in any election year), and training poll workers (especially important after a big redistricting year).  The General Assembly only has to keep election funding at past levels to qualify for these funds, but right now they're shorting that amount a little such that they won't qualify for these funds that are from the feds and already sitting in an NC bank account.  There is no reason to think 2012 will be a lower voting year than the past, so we definitely need to be prepared for that.

Here are a few pics taken by a friend, credit for this go to Yolanda Carrington, who also took the UNC civil rights center pic that I used as the lead photo:

And a picture I took of the post-march rally on my phone: