More than 150 people gathered in front of the historic Hillsborough courthouse for the North Carolina NAACP’s “Press Conference for Historical Accuracy.” The crowd included elected officials, local NAACP leaders and residents of many races, some waving small American flags.

North Carolina NAACP leader Rev. William Barber said his organization called the conference to mark 50 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act and to protest the 2013 state voting laws and moves by the 2015 legislature to protect Confederate monuments.

“Our current legislature and governor will protect monuments and flags of our racist past that fuels racism in our present, but they refuse to protect voting rights.”

The NAACP press conference in Hillsborough came two days before as many as 1,500 Confederate flag supporters are expected to converge upon the town for Saturday’s “Southern Heritage Ride and Rally.” The rally was organized in response to efforts to remove the words “Confederate Memorial” from the Orange County Historical Museum.

“When we equate Southern heritage with pro-confederate rhetoric and symbols, we are falling victim to the lie of Southern heritage—a lie that so many of my white brothers and sisters have been fed for their entire lives,” said Laurel Ashton, field secretary for the North Carolina NAACP. She was one of many speakers at Thursday’s press conference who expressed skepticism about the history and values behind Confederate symbols.

“An accurate reading of history shows us that most Confederate monuments were erected 50 years after the war to celebrate a successful campaign of violent white terrorism to crush Reconstruction,” Ashton said. “An accurate reading of history shows us that it wasn’t until the 1950s when the Confederate flag became main-stream after a rise in white supremacy groups following the passage of Brown v. Board of Education.”

Rev. Barber called on Governor Pat McCrory and the General Assembly to repeal the monuments bill, saying the Confederate symbols it protects represent white supremacy.

“And if you push white supremacy to the nth degree, it means that you have the right to kill or destroy anybody that’s not like you,” Barber warned. “That’s dangerous. It’s dangerous yes, in the mind of Dylann Roof, but it is even more dangerous when it is supported by governors and legislatures of the state because it gives a legitimacy to it.”

The North Carolina NAACP will continue its protest of the state legislature and the removal of sections from the Voting Rights Act in a 170-mile march across North Carolina. The 170 miles are part of a larger march organized by the national NAACP. Like the historic march for voting rights in 1965, this summer’s march begins in Selma, Alabama, and ends in Washington, D.C.