The popular movement in North Carolina led by the state’s NAACP chapter and marked each week with civil disobedience actions known as ‘Moral Monday’ protests swelled to their largest number yesterday, with organizers saying that as many as five thousand people marched outside the North Carolina State Legislative Building in Raleigh. Later, nearly 120 were arrested after refusing orders to disperse by police.

The latest arrests bring the total number to over 600 in the eight weeks since the protest movement began and occurred as those arrested in the first wave of protests faced trial at a nearby county courthouse.

As the local Charlotte Observer describes, the latest ‘Moral Monday’ protest took “labor issues, women’s rights and economic justice as their themes for the week” and “demonstrators hoped to halt what many described as ‘arrogant’ and ‘vindictive’ policies that favored the very wealthy and caused great harm to the state’s poorest and weakest.”

The protest came just one week before a painful cut to the state’s unemployment benefit system kicks in, which will cut jobless aid to recipients by a third in some cases.

“Seven days from now, that’s when the pain starts,” said the NAACP’s Rev. William Barber, who has emerged as the movement’s spiritual voice and organizing leader.

Several media outlets also featured local resident Lee Creighton, who spoke powerfully at Monday’s rally.

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