This year, the GOP took power in the North Carolina state house and governor's mansion for the first time since Reconstruction. Once in office, it didn’t lose any time implementing a radical right-wing agenda. In the past two months, it has declined the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, ended unemployment benefits for 71,000 people, repealed a law that allowed death-row inmates to challenge sentences based on racial bias and pushed for a host of onerous voting restrictions. In the face of all his, the people of North Carolina are fighting back. Beginning on April 29, a coalition lead by the North Carolina NAACP has been staging weekly nonviolent protests at their statehouse, called Moral Mondays. So far, more than 700 activists have been arrested.

Join The Nation in thanking the Moral Monday protesters and telling them we’ve got their back. Then, if you can, head to the North Carolina NAACP and give a donation to keep Moral Mondays going strong.

Allison Kilkenny’s latest report on Moral Mondays profiles some of the activists who are taking a stand against what they consider unjust laws, in some cases for the first time in their lives.

In this June 20 video, Congressman G.K. Butterfield speaks at a Moral Mondays protest. in which 84 protesters were arrested for civil disobedience at the North Carolina General Assembly.