Join us Monday, May 18, in Washington, DC and states across the nation for a Moral Monday Peace and Nonviolence Rally outside the White House.

Repairers of the Breach is organizing clergy, impacted people, faith leaders, advocates, and people of moral conscience to gather in prophetic public witness against war, systemic racism, militarism, poverty, voter suppression, environmental injustice, attacks on immigrants and LGBTQ people, and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism.

This Moral Monday action comes one day after the White House’s planned “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, & Thanksgiving” gathering. During Monday’s action, nationally recognized clergy and moral leaders will publicly challenge the distorted theology being used to justify war, attacks on democracy, and policy violence against poor and vulnerable people.

Grounded in the prophetic traditions of justice, truth-telling, nonviolence, and solidarity with the poor, clergy leaders will preach publicly in the streets near the White House before hundreds gathered in person and thousands more joining online across more than 20 livestream and social media platforms.

Bishop William J. Barber II, President & Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, will lead the gathering alongside nationally recognized bishops, rabbis, pastors, imams, faith organizers, impacted people, and moral advocates from across the country.

We gather because our nation continues to spend billions on war while communities struggle for healthcare, housing, education, living wages, environmental protection, and voting rights. We believe faith must never be used to sanctify destruction, injustice, or extremism.

Join us for public prayer, testimony, preaching, songs, and disciplined nonviolent moral witness.

The Texas Longhorns have continued to take care of business as they attempt to defend their national championship, beginning the NCAA Tournament in commanding fashion. 

The Longhorns hit the field for the first game of the Austin Regional on Friday and rolled, taking down Wagner 9-1. And now Texas is into the regional final after a decisive victory on Saturday afternoon. 

With a ticket on the line to the regional final the Longhorns would face off against the No. 8-seeded Wisconsin Badgers. And the Longhorns would make quick work of the matchup winning with another run rule game taking down the Badgers 9-0 in six innings. 

Texas Gets Off to Quick Start and Doesn’t Look Back

While the Longhorns got through their first game on Friday it was without a bit of struggle having a slow start to begin the ballgame. However, Texas would not have any time struggling to settle into the game against Wisconsin dominating from the first inning. 

Texas would get out to an early lead from the jump scoring in the first inning and would not slow down for the rest of the afternoon. The Longhorns would start the game with a three run first inning with junior Viviana Martinez batting in her third run of the Austin Regional. 

Getting her bat hot again would be senior Reese Atwood who broke out of a slump of being without a home run for the last seven games. Atwood would break out of the cold streak with a two run blast giving Texas a 3-0 lead they would not look back from. 

“It felt good to finally have one leave the yard,” Atwood said. “My confidence comes from my preparation, not my performance or my batting average, so just having confidence that I’m working as hard as I can.”

The Longhorns would score runs in the first three innings of the ballgame putting the contest out of reach before it really had a chance to start. Texas would lead 7-0 from the third inning and would threaten the run rule for the rest of the game. 

And the run rule would come into effect in the sixth inning courtesy of a two run home run from junior Kayden Henry. The junior would homer to left field as she ended the game 3-4 from the plate and four RBI. 

Just like the Longhorns dominated from inside the batters box they did the same from the circle. Getting her first action of the Austin Regional junior Teagan Kavan would toss five shutout innings allowing just a single hit and struck out eight batters. 

The Longhorns now are a game away from hosting a Super Regional on their home field at Red and Charline McCombs Field. While the opponent for Texas in the regional final is still to be determined the game will be on Sunday May 17 at 12:00 p.m. CT. 

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Thousands of people from across the country descended on Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, on Saturday. They arrived by bus, by car and by plane to gather for the All Roads Lead to the South rally, following the supreme court’s Louisiana v Callais decision last month, which essentially gutted the Voting Rights Act and severely limited protections against voting discrimination.

Organized by a coalition of national and local civic engagement groups, the rally took place outside the Alabama state capitol building, in the same plaza where the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches – three nonviolent demonstrations in support of Black voting rights – are enshrined.

“We’re here, Montgomery, not at a stopping point, but at a starting point,” Steven L Reed, mayor of Montgomery and the first Black person to hold the position, told the crowd. “We’re here in this city because of the spirit, because of the courage and because of the commitment of our forefathers and foremothers who got us to this point.”

Following the supreme court decision, Republican-led states rushed to redraw their voting maps in ways that weaken Black political power. Tennessee and Florida have already passed new maps, while Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia seem poised to follow. Mississippi temporarily paused redistricting efforts, with the state’s governor promising to revisit the issue soon.

Voting activists from these states affected by Republican redistricting attempts – along with local and national elected officials, including the senators Cory Booker and Raphael Warnock and the representatives Terri Sewell, Shomari Figures and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – took the stage to mobilize and energise attendees.

“We need to fight with all we got,” said Charlane Oliver, a Tennessee state senator who protested the state’s redistricting by standing on her desk last week. “They may draw some racist maps, but we are the south, this is our south. The south belongs to us. The south got something to say, and we gon’ speak real loud and clear in November.”

Throughout the event, spontaneous chants of “vote, vote, vote” emerged from the audience. At times, All Roads to the South felt like a worship event, harkening back to the Black church’s vital role in the civil rights movement. It began with a prayer; when an attendee had a medical event, an emcee asked those gathered to “put their praying hands together”. Multiple gospel songs were performed throughout the day.

For many attendees, being at the rally was personal. Their family members fought for voting rights. Now, they said, it’s up to them to take up the banner.

“My grandmama, my momma, my mother-in-law – our ancestors did not cross that bridge, walk during the bus boycott, my cousins got locked in the First Baptist Church [in Montgomery], across from the police station in the 60s, my other cousin got beat up by a horse up on Jackson Street – we didn’t do all that for this,” said Carole Burton, a Montgomery resident.

The day began in Selma, with a prayer service at the historic Tabernacle Baptist church, followed by a silent walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of the brutal “Bloody Sunday” violence against civil rights marchers in 1965. From there, those who attended the actions in Selma traveled by bus to Montgomery, where they were joined by thousands.

All Roads Lead to the South was not an isolated event – more than 50 satellite events were scheduled across the country for people who couldn’t make it to Alabama. Speakers also noted that the fight would continue elsewhere.

“Our task is bigger than defending the past,” Rukia Lumumba, director of the Mississippi VRA Rapid Response Coalition and M4BL Action Fund, said. “Our task is to build a democracy worthy of the people who bled to create it in the first place.”