Updated Aug. 17, at 12:32 p.m. to include video from the protest.
Martha Brown remembers babysitting at the home on the corner of Country Club Road and Cleburne Street in Greensboro for the previous owners when she was in 11th grade. Brown is now 71 years old and on Sunday, Aug. 1, over 60 years later, she found herself on the same street corner. However, this time she was there to protest the actions of the Postmaster General.
Louis DeJoy, who now owns the house, took over as Postmaster General in May. Since starting the job, DeJoy has made several changes to the U.S. Postal Service, which have sparked protests at DeJoy’s homes in D.C. and Greensboro, including the removal of mail sorting machines across the country, the elimination of employee overtime and the removal or reassignment of 23 postal executives from their positions.
All the changes have put increased strain on the USPS, which has caused concerns as to if the system can handle the increase in mail-in ballots expected in the upcoming election due to the coronavirus pandemic. Protestors also brought up concerns that President Donald Trump was using DeJoy and the postal service for his political advancement.
DeJoy is on the Elon Board of Trustees and is a donor to Trump and the university. Dejoy and his wife Aldona Wos fund four full Odyssey Program scholarships for Guilford County students with high financial need and outstanding academic abilities. There is a petition with over 2,000 signatures calling for DeJoy to be removed from the board.
Brown was joined by over a hundred other protesters — including her husband, Robert Brown — who gathered in support of reversing DeJoy’s changes to the post office and removing him from his position as Postmaster General. Signs could be seen that read “Fire DeJoy and Save the USPS” and “The USPS is not for sale.” The protests remained peaceful the entire time but some left their signs in the bushes of the DeJoy residences.
Brown and her husband rely on the postal system for more than just voting.
“This president and [DeJoy] ... they are slowing down the mail, and they are slowing down [Robert] getting his medicine,” Brown said.
Due to her and her husband’s age, Brown is especially worried about contracting the coronavirus if she and her husband are unable to vote by mail.
“This virus is serious. I had a cousin die from the virus, 60 years old,” Brown said. “[Trump] doesn’t want people to vote because he wants to save his election.”
Another protester was Scott Huffman, a Democrat running for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, which includes Alamance County. He spoke at the event along with several others. He was there to help “fight the war on our democracy through the postal system.”
“The right to vote was given to us by our founding fathers,” Huffman said. “And as a veteran, I served my country so you would have the right to vote.”
Huffman does not put all the blame on DeJoy for the problems with the postal service.
“He is just an example of what happens when we get bad leadership in Washington,” Huffman said.