UPDATED: Wednesday, May 9th at 1:30 EST
As Bank of America’s executives, board, and shareholders gathered at the bank’s shareholder meeting in Charlotte, NC, thousands of protesters took to the streets and inside the meeting hall to speak out against BofA’s practices that are destroying our environment and our economy. The Flickr slideshow below will continue to be updated throughout the day.
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UPDATED: Wednesday, May 9th at 11:30 EST
Follow a live tweetstream of all the key hashtags and accounts for today.
Community members impacted by Bank of America’s financing of coal are bringing their message to Charlotte today:
Adam Hall served two tours in Iraq. Now he’s fighting what he calls his third battle: Stopping King Coal from destroying any more of his home in the mountains of Appalachia. He’s here in Charlotte to call on Bank of America to stop funding coal.
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Larry Gibson of Keeper of the Mountains Foundation is inside Bank of America’s shareholder meeting right now to tell BofA to stop funding coal.
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ORGINAL POST:
Bank of America’s shareholder meeting may be on Wednesday, but the protests are already well underway here in Charlotte, NC.
Three activists were arrested today for holding this banner on a highway overpass:
Photo by John Duffy.
Five police cars were on the scene to arrest these peaceful protesters for holding a sign up over the highway. If that seems excessive to you, too, all the more reason you should join us this Wednesday at the protest outside Bank of America’s shareholder meeting.
If you can’t make it to Charlotte, you can still make sure Bank of America hears from you during this week of protest by signing our petition calling on BofA to stop funding coal.
Speaking of coal, there was also a coal highway banner in another part of the city today. This one resulted in no arrests. A concerned citizen who appears to have been driving by at the time posted this pic to the right. Pretty blurry, but you get the idea.
The week really kicked off last night, when faith leaders from North Carolina and surrounding regions held a prayer vigil outside of BofA HQ in uptown Charlotte. Rev. Yvonne McJetters provided words of “comfort, encouragement, and support” for the protesters gathering in Charlotte for this week of speaking out against the many economic and environmental injustices Bank of America is responsible for in communities across the country.
Stay tuned to this blog post, we’ll be updating throughout the week.
In the meantime, check out this sweet poster for the main event going down this Wednesday outside BofA’s shareholder meeting:
Follow @BankVsAmerica to find out what happens, or watch the live stream at www.bankvsamerica.org starting at 8:30AM EST on Wednesday morning.