Symbolic funeral procession in Raleigh calls attention to COVID-19 deaths

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- More than one hundred cars moved slowly from the Duke Center for the Performing Arts to the North Carolina Capitol in Raleigh Saturday. They followed a hearse that carried an empty coffin with a symbolic message, said NC NAACP president T. Anthony Spearman.

"That the Moral March on Raleigh, Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HK on J) is still here. We're not going anywhere! We're just as powerful as we were back then," during the 14-Point agenda HK on J marches that began in 2007, he said.

The NAACP has several coalition partners that assemble annually on the second weekend in February with a list of social justice demands for state lawmakers.

But he said the rally and march planned for next Saturday won't draw the usual crowds downtown, "Marching side by side with one another, pressing one another's flesh, because of social distancing and all of the mandates we have to adhere to because of this pandemic."

The cars shown Saturday on ABC11 traveled, Spearman said, "Through the route that we would normally be marching on," as a symbolic funeral cortege honoring the people killed this year by COVID-19.

He confirms the 2021 HK on J is still happening on February 13, but it will be virtual.

"And we're doing all we can to put away as many injustices that we have faced over the past 15 years since our inception," said Spearman.

Because some of the problems marchers want to be addressed by authorities still persist, and he says they want action now. We'll let you know if, how and when he gets it.