Marching forward: Saturday crowd champions personal freedoms
Published 12:10 am Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Rowan County Board of Commissioners candidate Alissa Redmond, left, addresses a crowd from the steps of the county administration building in the lead up to the Women's March on Saturday in Salisbury. - Chandler Inions
Livingstone College Student Government President Nehkia Ray, right, prepares to perform a rap that she wrote about the upcoming election. - Chandler Inions
Lori Myers, left, and her granddaughter Samantha Myers participate in the march on Saturday. - Chandler Inions
Holly Kuzin, left, and her children wait for the rally to start before the Women's march on Saturday at the Rowan County Administrative Building. - Chandler Inions
Marchers cross South Church Street in Salisbury on Saturday. - Chandler Inions
Spencer Alderman Pat Sledge, center, among the faces at the Women's March in Salisbury on Saturday. - Chandler Inions
Marchers chant in unison on South Main Street in Salisbury on Saturday. - Chandler Inions
SALISBURY — Salisbury joined 200 cities nationwide on Saturday as host sites for the March to Protect All Our Basic Freedoms, a women’s led rally to get out the vote and champion various electoral issues.
Dozens of people gathered on the steps of the Rowan County Administration Building on West Innes Street to hear various speakers, singers and poets address the crowd before those numbers set off on a multi-block march around the city.
Among those speakers was the 96th Student Government President from Livingstone College, Nekhia Ray. Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, Ray is participating in her first presidential election.
During the rally portion of the event, Ray addressed the crowd on a variety of topics. Ray is hardly a single-issue voter. She cited taxation policy, reproductive rights, public education and the justice system as major reasons behind who she supports.
After the march on Saturday, Ray indicated that she finds those types of events helpful because she is able to retain knowledge from other speakers and then share it with other people who may have a different perspective.
“This may be their first time hearing a different person,” Ray said. “So, sometimes people understand things in different ways and if I can make someone understand it in a way that is beneficial to them, then that is my goal.”
Ray acknowledged that she came from a family that historically did not have a lot of formal education or participate in much civic engagement.
“One thing that I do is I try to sum it down for them in a way that they can understand it, and then I bring that information to other individuals who I feel are in the same boat, and I try to get them all to understand it so we can be on a collective level,” Ray said. “It’s not just going to take voters to reach our goal. It’s going to take educated voters.”
Ray’s earliest electoral memory was when former President Barack Obama captured the White House and ushered in an era of change.
“I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but I remember my mom,” Ray said. “She woke me up, and then she told me that Obama, Barack Obama, had just won the presidency. And then she told me that this is the first time a Black man will be president, and that if he can do that, I can do anything that I set my mind to.”
As a woman of color, being able to see that representation on the ballot is inspiring to Ray.
“Not only do I see a Black woman, but I also see a woman who looks like me, and so it makes me know that the country is getting better and it’s becoming more progressive,” Ray said. “It also makes me realize that I could be there one day as well, and everything that I’m doing now is going to contribute to the community in which there are black little girls looking at Kamala like, ‘Gee, I’m gonna one day be able to do that.’
“It makes my heart happy and it also makes the little me happy. I’ve always been a dreamer, but I’ve always been a realistic dreamer, and seeing that, it’s like a dream coming into fruition, coming to reality.”
Ray won’t rule out a future in politics, but at present, she has plans to attend law school and become an attorney.
“Once I got to college, that’s when the things that I was doing became very intentional,” Ray said. “I was very intentional about the words that I was saying. I was very intentional about the actions that I was making. Because I realized that it all is going to contribute to a future, but not just a future, a better future.”
The march on Saturday brought out numerous local residents as well as some people from out of town. Among the faces in the crowd was Holly Kuzin, a woman who traveled from Concord because Salisbury was the closest location for a Women’s march. Kuzin did not come alone. She also brought her three children.
“I want my kids to feel empowered to use their voices,” Kuzin said in an email on Sunday. “We practice bodily autonomy and consent. It’s not a complicated concept for kids to comprehend. I invited my kids to come with me to the march and talked about why I was going. My 10-year-old daughter and six-year-old son were excited to attend, but my middle eight-year-old daughter only decided at the last minute to join us.
Kuzin attended a Women’s March in Charlotte after the Dobbs decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade.
“This year, I did not find a Women’s March in Charlotte, so Salisbury was the closest one around,” Kuzin said.
Kuzin considers herself politically engaged.
“I’ve voted in every presidential and midterm election, and most other polls, since becoming eligible in 1999,” Kuzin said. “I am unaffiliated politically, though I lean progressive, so most of my political engagement involves attending city council meetings, writing to my elected officials, being involved with things like election protection and attending marches.
“I have attended other marches over the years (against the Iraq War, for LGBTQ rights, etc) but the first Women’s March I attended was in November 2016 after President Trump was elected.”
Saturday was a good time to hear voters as well as from local candidates running for offices from the county commission up to the general assembly and state senate. Tangela Morgan, Alisha Byrd-Clark and Alissa Redmond addressed the crowd and spoke about their policy positions.
“We are united in our commitment to freedom and dignity for all Americans and putting our leaders on notice – from Supreme Court Justices to candidates running for office to sitting elected officials on both sides of the aisle,” an advance release from the organizers said. “We will not stop marching, protesting, voting, running for office until all of our freedoms are protected.”
