By Zak Keith
NC Chapter Lead Organizer
Hundreds of thousands of people poured into Washington DC on April 29 - the 100th day of President Trump’s term - to urge our government to take action to slow climate change. North Carolina Sierrans and supporters turned out by the busload for the People’s Climate March as well.
The march not only called for climate action, but protested the Trump administration’s attacks on people of color, immigrants, working people, Muslims, women, and the LGBTQ community. In addition to Sierrans from North Carolina and across the country, the turnout included a broad array of environmental, justice, labor, faith, frontline and youth communities.
The People’s Climate March was divided into sections that marchers could self-identify with, from faith voices to communities fighting fossil fuel projects in their communities. Sierrans started the morning in the Many Struggles One Home section, where wonderful art and signs were on display.
The artwork was thanks to the North Carolina-based Paperhand Puppet Intervention, in coordination with our own Piedmont Plateau group chair Nicole Spivey and NC Climate Justice Summit organizer Jodi Lasseter. The group’s performance in the morning helped start the day with positive energy. If you were not in DC or missed the show, the Paperhand Puppet Intervention is taking the puppets and art on a road show throughout North Carolina.
As the morning went on, those of us who arrived early were joined by 10 busloads full of sleepy but eager activists from across North Carolina, including Raleigh, Greensboro, Asheville, New Bern, Charlotte, Boone and Chapel Hill. We had close to 600 people travel by bus or van to DC, with countless others traveling on their own to join us.
The Sierra Club took the lead on organizing seven of the buses, a feat that couldn’t have been been pulled off without the leadership of our volunteer bus captains including Liz Adams and Harvey Richmond (Capital Group - both on the far right of the picture below), Gerry Kingsley (Central Piedmont Group), Kim Piracci (Orange-Chatham Group), Melissa McCullough (Orange-Chatham Group), Jane Laping and Ann Perry (WENOCA), Michael Schachter (Croatan Group), and Michelle Jones and Pat Seibert (Piedmont Plateau). They deserve our effusive thanks for their patience and hard work!
Perhaps appropriately for a climate-focused event, the March took place in record-breaking heat. Still, everyone had an incredible and inspiring time, including these NC participants:
- Shawn made a lot of friends as he walked the march wearing a solar panel charging station, where he could charge up to four devices at a time.
- Sterling brought his son from New Bern for his first major march. The two happened to end up walking and talking with Al Gore for part of it!
- Debbie, a coal ash crusader who lives in Belmont, NC, has been living on bottled water for over two years due to poisoned wells in her community. She marched for full cleanup and environmental and social justice for her community.
Not to be outdone by the main event in Washington, Sierrans participated in sister marches from the mountains to the sea in North Carolina - in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro and New Bern. Some of our partner groups helped spearhead those events, while our local WENOCA, Central Piedmont and Croatan groups all pitched in and helped turned folks out. We extend a big thank you for their efforts, which provided a voice for those who wanted to participate but couldn’t travel to Washington.
The work on the People’s Climate March started months ago when we began to organize with partner groups from across the state. We reached out to other environmental organizations and also worked to bring in local community groups, labor organizations, faith voices, youth organizations and more. The People’s Climate March helped us build connections that we previously didn't have, and we are using the momentum coming out of the march to deepen those relationships to build a stronger and more inclusive climate justice movement in North Carolina.
Thanks are also due to my fellow chapter organizer, Jessie White, who came on board in the final weeks for the all-hands-on-deck final push, and to Beyond Coal organizer Luis Rodriguez, who helped organize the activity in Charlotte.
Marches aren't the end of our work - only milestones along the journey. We have already hosted a debrief call for bus riders and some of the local NC groups have already planned next-steps meetings. We look forward to working in our local communities and bring the message of the People’s Climate March back to North Carolina!
Onward!
News coverage of local marches: