海角大神

The picture might have seemed like something out of a Bernie Sanders rally.

Thousands of people spilling into a city square here on a cold February day, calling for rights for gays and for lesbians and for women. Thundering that minorities were being systematically disenfranchised. Demanding access to affordable health care.

Then out walks the most anticipated speaker of the day. He is a black man, and around his neck is the starched white collar of a pastor. When he speaks, white and black and Latino and Asian heads nod in agreement.

This is no church sermon. Nor is it a rally like any other held this election season. It is a movement that has begun to seize hold here in North Carolina and that, as the state heads to the polls Tuesday for its primary, is trying to reshape how Southerners, in particular, see politics. 聽 聽

The speaker, the Rev. William Barber II, calls it 鈥渇usion鈥� in a nod to the diverse coalition it has brought together. But at its heart, it is an attempt to reframe the politics of morality in America, seizing it from conservative evangelism and arguing that care and compassion for all Americans 鈥� whether gay or straight, white or black, man or woman 鈥� is the essence of morality.

Especially this election season, its success points to potentially significant changes percolating not only here but across the United States.

Senator Sanders has enjoyed more success than any pundit predicted by promoting a similar message in a more secular way. Taken together, the two movements hint at how visions of morality in America are potentially evolving. Millennials accept same-sex marriage, want big government, and 鈥渁re no less convinced than their elders that there are absolute standards of right and wrong,鈥� according to a seminal 2010 Pew Research Center study.

It is those views of morality that the fusion coalition has tapped here and Sanders has nationwide 鈥� among Millennials and beyond, in the case of Mr. Barber鈥檚 movement. He thinks it can grow to other Southern states. There will be challenges. But his eclectic mix of races, religions, and rights groups might provide at least one glimpse of the future of the American left.聽

A 'Third Reconstruction'

His message seems perfectly calibrated for the moment.

鈥淲e should be concerned 鈥� when politics is more a struggle over money and manipulation than a struggle over ideas,鈥� he the crowd at the February rally, catching the populist mood of this election. 鈥淧oliticians want us to be slaves to their decisions without citizens having the ability to register their discontent at the ballot box.鈥�

But in many ways, Barber, a聽Duke University-educated theologian,聽is simply taking the spirit of sermons preached from the pulpits of black churches since the 1960s and applying it much more broadly, says Scott Huffmon, a political scientist at Winthrop University in South Carolina.

Indeed, as the head of the North Carolina NAACP, Barber says race is a vital first step to addressing other social issues. But his agenda goes beyond traditionally black issues such as education cuts and voting restrictions to embrace rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community as well as the cause of undocumented immigrants.

Underlying it all is the basic idea that framing issues through a moral prism makes them far more powerful and universal than framing them politically.

The goal, he says, is nothing less than a 鈥淭hird Reconstruction鈥� in the South 鈥� following the initial post-Civil War Reconstruction and the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

鈥淎merica says that its purpose is to establish justice,鈥� he says in an interview. 鈥淲e swear on Bibles 鈥� there鈥檚 2,000 scriptures in the Bible about justice. It鈥檚 not progressive, it鈥檚 not all liberal, like that鈥檚 a bad word. To be conservative 鈥� if conservative means 鈥榯o hold onto the essence of鈥� 鈥� to be a true constitutional conservative means you would be in every fight about establishing justice and promoting the general welfare because you say you believe in the Constitution.鈥�

鈥淪o we鈥檝e gotten all messed up whether it鈥檚 left or right or whether it鈥檚 too risky. What we鈥檙e saying is we need a moral movement that said, 鈥楬ere鈥檚 this policy, is it morally defensible?鈥� 鈥� he adds.

His 鈥淢oral Monday鈥� events at North Carolina鈥檚 state capitol have drawn crowds in the tens of thousands. White chapters of the NAACP are popping up in the conservative Western part of the state. Protesters have been willing to go to jail to further the cause.

Al McSurely, a white, civil rights activist and attorney in his 70s has been involved with civil rights organizing for decades, and he believes Barber鈥檚 movement will result in long-term change.

鈥淭hey killed Malcolm [X], Martin [Luther King],鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey killed the Panthers. The only solution is organizing at a county 鈥� at a grass-roots level. I feel very confident they鈥檙e going to have a hard time busting this movement.鈥�

Alabama is not North Carolina

The question is how exportable the movement is, and the challenge is that North Carolina is more liberal than the rest of the South.

鈥淣orth Carolina is a lot more progressive than Alabama,鈥� says Benard Simelton, who leads Alabama鈥檚 state NAACP chapter. 鈥淪o people there, it鈥檚 easier for them to see what he鈥檚 trying to do and how it benefits everyone, especially the [poor]. People in Alabama, they are still of the opinion that 鈥業 may be dirt poor, but if a Republican says this is not good for me, then this is not good for me.鈥� 鈥�

Barber鈥檚 often-caustic tone also could turn off moderates who otherwise might be attracted to his message. He of Tim Scott, the first black senator elected in the South since Reconstruction and a Republican: 鈥淎 ventriloquist can always find a good dummy.鈥�

鈥淗e is seen as too radical,鈥� says Paul O鈥機onnor, a long-time North Carolina state politics reporter and columnist. 鈥淎nd of course it鈥檚 race-based that he鈥檚 seen as radical. You鈥檝e got to get moderate to moderately conservative rural white people to see that what the Republicans are doing. They鈥檙e not going to listen to a fiery black man saying that.鈥�

For the movement to gain traction outside North Carolina, Barber and those who help spread the message will have to win over voters who haven鈥檛 associated their values with the left in a generation. 鈥淭he question is can that message come out and get less politically strident 海角大神s to vote Democratic in key elections?鈥� says Professor Huffmon of Winthrop University.

The Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank in the state, called Barber鈥檚 protests 鈥淢oney Mondays鈥� and catalogued the state and federal grants his Goldsboro, N.C., church and affiliated organizations have used to build up the poor community.

Barber smiles at the criticism. His church,聽Greenleaf 海角大神 Church Disciples of Christ, has poured its money and leveraged state and federal grants to help seniors, former felons, the incarcerated, and the homeless, he says. On a recent Sunday, the pastor proudly showed off homes that the church鈥檚 development organization helped build to move people out of poverty.

It鈥檚 the message of his movement 鈥� allied with leaders taking charge in local communities 鈥� that will allow it to expand, Barber says.

The resonance of Sanders鈥檚 message shows the appetite for a uniting progressive force, adds Bob Zellner, a longtime civil rights organizer. But Barber鈥檚 morality-based argument will resonate even more broadly, he adds with a stridency that could come straight from the Sanders 鈥渞evolution.鈥�

鈥淲e have two forces trying to pull the country in opposite directions: One trying to pull the country toward division and violence, and the other by Dr. Barber鈥� to build bridges and connections rather than moats,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to take back the evangelical community, we鈥檙e going to take back the moral high ground, we鈥檙e going to take back the flag, and we're going to bring it back to real American forces that believed in brotherhood and sisterhood, not division.鈥�

[Editor's note: The original version misquoted Barber on the number of scriptures about justice.]