NAACP Poverty Tour will make a stop in Goldsboro, other cities
By Staff Reports
Published in News on March 2, 2012 1:55 PM
The North Carolina chapter of the nation's oldest civil rights organization will continue its poverty tour in Goldsboro today as part of a statewide effort to highlight the plight of the poor in the state.
The state chapter president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Rev. Dr. William Barber, will be at the Community Crisis Center at 607 S. Slocumb St. today at 11:45 a.m. along with other activists and citizens as the organization begins the second leg of its Truth and Hope Tour.
The tour, which began in Greenville this morning and will head to Faison today before continuing to Wilmington and towns in Brunswick, Robeson and Cumberland counties tomorrow, seeks to put a face on poverty in the region.
Representatives from the state NAACP, the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, N.C. Justice Center, Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change at North Carolina Central University and AARP of N.C. will be a part of the tour.
The first leg Jan. 19-20 included stops throughout the northeast portion of the state, beginning in Washington, passing through Elizabeth City and ending in Rocky Mount.
The tour combined statistics concerning impoverished citizens, especially at-risk youth, and forward-looking suggestions on subjects ranging from education to unemployment.
In a statement, Barber suggested the state develop a plan with which to envision a better future and insisted that only systematic and structural changes within the state's institutions would bring about sustainable change.
"Individual charity along will not address this problem," he said.