Vegans hugely represented at Tenth Moral March in Raleigh

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This year, organizers from the NAACP in Raleigh, NC held their tenth anniversary Moral March, an event that originally vegan over the rights of Black Americans, and has extended in the last decade to include contingents from Planned Parenthood, North Carolina public teachers, doctors for better healthcare, and liberal religious voters. This year, animal rights activists had their largest ever contingent represented, led by the grassroots, leaderless movement, Vegans for Peace.

VFP’s founder, James DeAlto, also the man behind the Vegan Chalk Challenge, worked tirelessly over the last few months to bring the contingent together, doing everything from ordering, designing, and making T-shirts, to promoting against state lines to bring in marchers. Having been a marcher two years prior, I took an immediate interest in the project. When a movement is grassroots and lacks major funding, pulling something like a march off is a lot to take on. Nonetheless, on Saturday, vegans found themselves well represented and joyful in the streets of downtown Raleigh. “It was an incredible experience to be among so many compassionate people who were willing to get up early on a bitter cold Saturday morning to stand up for the rights of all who are oppressed,” DeAlto told us.

Greensboro resident Sena Crutchley was quoted as saying that “It was very inspiring. I feel like we were able to get our message out in a positive way. There was a real sense of solidarity with the other people who were here for the same reason of fighting oppression,” speaking to the camaraderie between leftist groups at the march.

“We had lots of people come up to us, ask questions… one guy even asked to march with us. There’s a perception that vegans don’t care about other issues beside animal rights, but this gave us a chance to also be able to speak out against all forms of oppression,” said Tracey Rene Curtis of Smithfield.

DeAlto is optimistic that participating in the march is a massive step closer to building a compassionate animal liberation movement to North Carolina. We can’t wait to see what activists in the state do next.