ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Bishop William J. Barber II will bring a voter mobilization tour to Asheville next week as organizers work to encourage turnout ahead of the November midterm election.
Barber, a longtime North Carolina civil rights leader and former president of the North Carolina NAACP, will speak at a rally at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at Land of the Sky United Church of Christ, 15 Overbrook Place.
The event is part of Barber’s 100 Days of Voter Mobilization tour and the Love Forward Together initiative organized by Repairers of the Breach, the nonprofit organization Barber leads.
Dr. Hanna Broome, the organization’s director of religious affairs, also is scheduled to speak.
Organizers say the effort is focused on reaching low-wage and infrequent voters through text messages, phone calls, door-to-door canvassing and marches to the polls.
The Asheville stop follows tour events in Fayetteville, Elizabeth City, Wilson, Winston-Salem and Durham, according to organizers.
Barber helped lead the Moral Monday demonstrations that began in Raleigh in 2013. He later helped revive the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort rooted in the campaign launched by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
“Our vote is our voice for change, and we all need to use it,” Leslie Boyd, a tri-chair of the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, said in a news release. “We need to make a plan to vote and then carry it out.”
Organizers also plan to announce details at Thursday’s rally about an Oct. 22 march to an early-voting site in Asheville. The march is expected to end at the Wesley Grant Southside Center, 285 Livingston St.
Wesley Grant is one of 13 early-voting sites in Buncombe County for the 2026 general election. Early voting runs Oct. 15-31. Weekday voting hours are 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., with additional voting hours on three Saturdays and Sunday, Oct. 25.
The regular deadline to register to vote in the general election is 5 p.m. Oct. 9. Eligible residents who miss that deadline may register and vote at the same time during the early-voting period.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.