The Long March for Unity & Justice is a statewide movement spearheaded by the Beloved Community Center which aims to bring light to communities across North Carolina.
The march started in Cullowhee and Sylva Friday, Aug. 20 with a community luncheon at the Cullowhee Baptist Church.
Over the course of 10 days, the march will make 12 stops working their way from Sylva to Wilmington bringing awareness to a range of local social justice issues ranging from environmental health to women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.
The Beloved Community Center, founded in 1991, is a “grassroots empowerment-oriented organization rooted in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy” according to the website. It was co-founded by Rev. Nelson Johnson, Rev. Barbara Dua and Rev. Z. Holler in Greensboro, NC.
Brigette Rasberry, operations officer for the BCC, visited Dr. Vincent Russell’s Interpersonal Communication class Thursday, Aug. 29 in search of volunteers for the organization.
“Our primary work is community building and movement building,” Rasberry said. “We work with the people within the community that are most marginalized and oppressed to build a sense of community and to wrap the community around them so that there is this belonging.” 
Rev. Nelson Johnson found his calling for civil rights while attending North Carolina A&T State University which set him on a path that led him to getting involved with planning a Communist Workers Party anti-Klan march. That march in Greensboro in 1979 would later be known as the Greensboro massacre where five protesters were shot and killed by counter-protesting KKK members.
The BCC continues the fight for justice for the five victims of the massacre through the Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission Project which seeks to bring understanding to the massacre as well as heal and unite the City of Greensboro in a fight for civil rights.
“Rev. Johnson would often say that there can be no justice without truth,” Rasberry said. “Unless we get at the root causes of the issues and things that divide us and keep us from living in a just society then we can’t get to the justice that we are seeking. We have to be willing to dig for it and go wherever it leads us and then once we unearth the things then we have to begin to heal from those things.”
The search for justice and healing is not only focused within the Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission but also a wide range of movements. The BCC works with voter engagement, police accountability initiatives and economic justice movements.
“As a nation we are vulnerable because we are divided,” Rasberry said. “Change starts when people demand it.”
Below are the stops for the march:
- Cullowhee and Sylva – Friday, Sept. 20
- Asheville – Friday, Sept. 20
- Boone – Saturday, Sept. 21
- Charlotte – Sunday, Sept. 22
- Greensboro – Monday, Sept. 23
- Durham – Tuesday, Sept. 24
- Raleigh – Tuesday, Sept. 25
- Halifax & North Hampton counties – Wednesday, Sept. 25
- Greenville – Thursday Sept. 26
- Fayetteville – Friday, Sept. 27
- Laurinburg – Saturday, Sept. 28
- Wilmington – Sunday, Sept. 29
