RALEIGH -- The North Carolina NAACP is taking action against a lawsuit they say is a racist attack on black voters.

"We need our voice at the table. We fought for it and we died for it,
Dr. King died for it, his forefathers died for it, and it’s wrong for
North Carolina to try taking North Carolina backwards," said the Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP.

The lawsuit argues that only legislative districts with more than 50 percent of the black voting population should be protected by the Voting Rights Act.

“We must stop it here in North Carolina. They will undermine, if they do this, the letter and the spirit of the Voting Rights Act,” added Barber.

The NAACP said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are also asking the court to halt the 2008 elections.

“If this suit were to go through, it's a tremendously negative impact on North Carolina and more specifically on members that sit in the North Carolina House and Senate who are of African-American decent," said Barber.

According to a judge's order, the NAACP has received approval from a federal court to intervene in what the NAACP is calling an unjust and mysterious lawsuit.

Now NAACP leaders say they will continue to tout their message of justice and equality for black voters until the lawsuit is thrown out.

“We fight and will fight every day this challenge to turn back the clock to dishonor the civil rights movement, and to dishonor the victories that have been won in social justice in America,” said Barber.

On Feb. 9, the NAACP will hold its "Historic Thousands on Jones Street" march.