five-and-dime stores started by grandfather james melvin pope, they are part of variety wholesalers, which is a discount store chain with more than 400 stores scattered in 14 states, and it s all still in the same family, now run by james melvin s grandson, art pope, who has parlayed his family s discount stores selling to poor and minority populations fortune into his own enormous political power in the state of north carolina. the pope family has given so much money to republican causes in the state of north carolina that the party s state headquarters building is named for them. before 2010, republicans had not controlled both houses of the north carolina state legislature since the 1800s, but then, art pope and his conservative funding network poured about $100,000 per race into 22 different legislative races across the state, and in so doing, they engineered a republican takeover of the legislature. three-quarters of all the outside money that flooded into races in that state in 2
and north carolina s legislature turned completely red for the first time since reconstruction. and that, of course, has brought about not only the voting rights role back that has made north carolina nationally famous this year, and the abortion rights role back and the short-lived attempt to establish a state religion in the state. remember that one? it s also been a wildly aggressive approach to budgeting in the state, spearheaded by the guy who made it all possible for the republicans, spearheaded by art pope, the architect of the north carolina republican takeover, but who is also the state s new budget director under republican governor pat mccrory. under republican control and art pope s budget stylings, north carolina has pursued deep, deep, deep cuts in education and unemployment benefits and health insurance for the poor. they ve even gone after preschool in the state, all policies that will pretty directly hit the shoppers at the pope family stores, right? bargain town, bill
maxway, all of the dollar stores that are part of their empire, all of the discount dollar stores that have made art pope and his family all of their many millions, which they have now spent to go after the poor in north carolina in a way that nobody has in more than 100 years. today, the state s naacp held a news conference outside the state budget office, outside art pope s office, announcing a campaign targeting mr. pope s discount stores. they re calling it a picketing campaign to educate dollar store customers about what they called the extreme and aggressive policies that they are funding by shopping at stores owned by mr. pope. we want to put a stop to the use of wealth to influence policies in a negative way. that s why it s not a boycott, it s a picket. if i came to the north carolina justice center, democracy north carolina instead of the john locke foundation, that would be okay because i support it s whether you give in the influence let s meet the head of the
people or rolling back the earned income tax credit or pushing the voter suppression law that we re seeing now that s the worst in the country in north carolina, all of that, you see the money imprint and the handprint imprint and the philosophical imprint of either art pope or groups he has backed in such a wrongful way. and that s why we re fighting. do you think that people in north carolina broadly understand the connection between that agenda that you just described and the network of discount stores that have made the pope family so wealthy over all these years? do people already know the connection between those po policies no. and those stores? they don t. no. that s why we re doing these informational pickets. now, we hope in this season of christmas and hanukkah, his own conscience we ve actually asked to meet with him that he would change. we have to believe in the possibility of redemption. we ve shared with him that it s against our greatest moral values, w
pope himself facing off today at the press conference. head of the naacp there calling for a picket campaign targeting the pope family s discount stores. his name is the reverend william barber, he s the president of naacp in north carolina. he s the man who is instrumental in the moral mondays protest in that state and he s now leading this multistate protest effort against the most influential republican in north carolina politics. joining us now for the interview tonight is the reverend william barber, north carolina s naacp president. reverend barber, thank you very much for being here. it s real nice to have you here, sir. rachel, thank you so much and for all that you do. why are you picketing art pope s businesses? what s the goal? well, what we see with art pope is the most lewd and cynical and sinister form of wealth and power manipulation. to put your stores deliberately and publicly in communities of low wealth and 25% african-american, make your wealth off of people,