The “Poor People’s & Low Wage Workers’ Assembly & Moral March on Washington and to the Polls” will convene Saturday, June 29.
It’s not a catchy title.
The event should be the “Poor People’s March on Washington.”
“March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” was the Aug. 28, 1963 event noted for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Saturday will call on political candidates to “support a moral public policy agenda that includes living wages, voting rights, and other essential policies that lift from the bottom.” Visit the Poor People’s Campaign website to learn more.
If you wonder what you would have done during the civil rights struggle in the past, then this is your answer. You’d be at Third & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW at 10 a.m. on Saturday or watching online.
Poor People’s Campaign is spearheaded by Rev. Dr. William Barber, a pastor in my denomination of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Barber appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart recently where he said that 40% of the adult population is in poverty, and nearly one-third of the workforce, or 52 million people, earn less than $15 an hour.
“Salinda Lake, who’s a major pollster, says the truest, most powerful, biggest swing vote right now is poor and low wage people,” said Barber, author of White Poverty.
“If you keep paying less than a living wage, if you keep denying people health care, if you keep giving greedy, wealthy folk $2 trillion tax cuts, but you won’t even spend the money to fully fund public education— if we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep having the level of poverty that we’re having,” Barber said. “And we don’t have to do it. It is actually, I believe, criminal— a form of policy violence to continue down the road that we are.”
Stewart raised the public perception that people in poverty have “an entitlement mentality” and that “there’s a certain character flaw that keeps you there.”
“The entitlement is in the politicians that keep raising their wages and giving corporations tax breaks, but they won’t help the working people” Barber said. “That’s the entitlement.”
Barber is absolutely right. King and the other speakers in 1963 were right then. In recent years Americans have lost freedoms and buying power while CEO pay and stock values have reached record highs.
THIS is what living Christian values is about. Standing up for the poor and bottom of our American society.
It seems that only Americans think it’s okay to spend tax money on weapons but not school supplies. Where are our Christian values supposed to be? In legislation prohibiting access to abortion AND access to affordable health care?
Why do we allow our tax dollars to be poured into war and death in other parts of the world and not into health, education, and the public welfare?
Christians should support legislation providing free school lunches to every public-school child in the United States, not demanding the pointless display of Bible verses in classrooms.
Keep reading for more about the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival:
The June 29th Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington D.C. & to the Polls will launch outreach to 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters ahead of the 2024 U.S. elections and beyond.
800 people die each day from poverty and low wealth. This is an unacceptable and abolishable reality. Our votes are demands.
We demand that those running for office commit to enacting our 17-Point Agenda, which includes living wages, voting rights, and other essential policies that lift from the bottom.
Moral Fusion 17-Point Agenda
- Abolishing poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.
- A living minimum wage of at least $15 +/hour (indexed for inflation)
- Full and expanded voting rights
- No more voter suppression
- Guaranteed workers’ rights & labor rights
- Healthcare for all
- Affordable, adequate housing
- Strong social welfare and safety net programs
- An end to gun violence, profit and proliferation
- Fully protected women’s rights
- Environmental justice that secures clean air & water
- Justice for all Indigenous nations
- Fully-funded public education
- Just immigration laws
- Addressing militarism and the war economy
- Standing for peace not war; an immediate cease fire in Gaza that allows humanitarian relief, the release of all hostages, and peace with justice to be pursued; and an end to genocide, around the world
- An end to hate, division, and the extremist political agenda
Here’s Poor People’s Campaign website to learn more.
For other articles about the civil rights struggle, visit:
The Civil Rights Struggle Continues, so Others May be Free
The Clark Doll Study Documenting the Damage of Segregation
Martin Luther King. Jr. and the Original Black Lives Matter Movement
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Pastor Jim Meisner, Jr. earned his M.Div. from the oldest HBCU seminary in the United States. He’s the author of the novel Faith, Hope, and Baseball, available on Amazon, or follow this link to order an autographed copy. He created and manages the Facebook page Faith on the Fringe.
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