In his prophetic speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” delivered on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his tragic and untimely assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared: “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism that blames poor people for their own poverty, into one “moral fusion” campaign.

Groups in Oakland, CA have been doing public participatory readings annually, since 2003. This year, standing in the bright sun at the amphitheater in front of Oakland City Hall, a group of activists, including members of the Bay Area Poor Peoples Campaign, gathered once again to read “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” As one of the organizers said: “We have now been doing these annual readings in Oakland under five U.S. administrations! And each year something new stands out that is directly relevant to the moment we’re in. This year was no different. Dr. King truly was a prophet who continues to teach and inspire us 57 years later.”

In Los Angeles, CA, twenty people gathered at Alexandria House to read Dr. King’s speech. Although most in attendance were not familiar with the history of the Vietnam war, the present-day resonance was clear to all. Several people were so moved by his words that they broke down and cried. One of the readers put it this way: “The beauty and power of the words of Dr. King, along with the harmony of the voices reading, was a gift to my spirit. So grateful to have been present.”

A statewide online reading, organized by the California Poor People’s Campaign took place on April 9.

This was the fourth year that North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign folks did online readings of the speech. Nearly 50 people volunteered to participate in the readings. There were readers from the mountains to the coast and every area in the state was represented. Over 100 people joined Zoom to hear the reading of the speech. Watch the recording here.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign. We have prepared a tool kit, updated annually, with everything you need to organize a reading in your community. Consider organizing a reading for next April 4 (or sooner; you don’t have to wait!)

The post MLK’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” – Now More Than Ever appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

UFPJ encourages groups around the country to organize public participatory readings of the speech this April 4 to keep building momentum for the Poor People’s Campaign. We have prepared a toolkit which provides everything you need to organize your own reading – in English or in Spanish. You can organize a reading in person or online.

In these wildly disturbing and dangerous Trumpian times, Dr. King’s words are as timely as ever.

When Dr. King gave this speech, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The country was in turmoil as peace activists resisted the draft, and anti-war and civil rights protesters took to the streets. King’s speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. And it was controversial in some parts of the civil rights movement.

In this powerful speech Dr King provides both a diagnosis and a cure that remain fully relevant today. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism that blames people for their own poverty and claims there’s “not enough,” into one “moral fusion” campaign. Click here to find and Join your state’s Poor People’s Campaign committee.

Listen to an audio recording of Dr. King delivering “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” on April 4, 1967.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a national mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Please let us know if you’re organizing a reading this year by contacting our National Organizer, George Friday at info.ufpj(at)gmail.com.

The post This April 4: Organize a Public Reading of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam: Speech in Your Community appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

UFPJ encourages groups around the country to organize public participatory readings of the speech this April 4 to build momentum for the Poor People’s Campaign Third Reconstruction Agenda to Heal the Nation: End Poverty and Low Wages From the Bottom Up. We have prepared a toolkit which provides everything you need to organize your own reading – in English or in Spanish. This year’s updated introduction makes reference to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine and the Israel – Hamas war in Gaza. You can organize a reading in person or online.

Please let us know if you’re planning a reading!

When Dr. King gave this speech, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The country was in turmoil as peace activists resisted the draft, and anti-war and civil rights protesters took to the streets. King’s speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. And it was controversial in some parts of the civil rights movement.

In this powerful speech Dr, King provides both a diagnosis and a cure that remain fully relevant today. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism that blames people for their own poverty and claims there’s “not enough,” into one “moral fusion” campaign.

Listen to an audio recording of Dr. King delivering “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” on April 4, 1967.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a national mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

The post This April 4: Organize a Public Reading of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam: Speech in Your Community appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

The Congress was held as hundreds of thousands of Americans are being kicked off Medicaid, child poverty is on the rise after the expanded child tax credit was allowed to expire, and as we near the 14th year since the impossibly low federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour was increased. And it follows a manufactured debt ceiling crisis that was resolved on the backs of poor people.  “Today, poverty is the 4th leading cause of death nationwide. It is a death sentence for Americans. It is a moral travesty and a detriment to the soul of our nation that poverty kills more people than homicide yet the powers that be don’t want to address it,” said Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. “There’s not a scarcity of resources, but a scarcity of political will. Until our nation’s leaders invest the great riches of this nation in ensuring equal justice for all, beginning with the poor and low-wealth of this nation, we cannot be silent.” 

The Congress opened with a launch event featuring Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, leading a discussion with Yale School of Public Health Assistant Professor Greg Gonsalves and UC-Riverside Professor David Brady, the author of a recent report citing poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in America.

The following day, local Poor People’s Campaign leaders, including impacted people, faith leaders, and advocates, visited members of the House and Senate – on both sides of the aisle from the 30+ states they represented – to demand they use their power to address poverty, which kills more people every year than homicide, but gets significantly less of the attention from politicians.

“Given the abundance that exists in this country and the fundamental dignity inherent to all humanity, every person in this nation has the right to demand dignified jobs and living wages, housing, education, health care and welfare,” said the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. But the truth is that millions of Americans are denied those fundamental rights, and thousands are dying as a result.”

Following the visits, impacted people and faith leaders held a funeral procession leading up to the Capitol, where participants spoke out about how poverty is an American death sentence, as it is the fourth leading cause of death in the country. Others discussed how the interlocking injustices have directly impacted their lives and their families. Read more. Watch the video recording here.

On June 21, Reps. Barbara Lee and Pramila Jayapal reintroduced a resolution calling for a Third Reconstruction, a large-scale federal effort to end poverty and dismantle racist policies and structures. The resolution, entitled the Third Reconstruction: Fully Addressing Poverty and Low Wages from the Bottom Up, outlines concrete ways to address poverty and the interlocking systemic injustices in our country.

“Poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in America, higher than homicides and gun violence, and it doesn’t have to be. It is policy decisions we must change in order to address this reality. Our movement has been saying we must simultaneously deal with the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation and the denial of health care, militarism and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism that blames the poor, instead of the systems that cause poverty. This resolution asks who in congress is ready to join us,“ said Bishop William J. Barber II.

This resolution realizes that we, as a nation, must simultaneously address the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation and the denial of health care, militarism and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism that blames the poor instead of the systems that cause poverty,” said Poor People’s Campaign Co-Chair Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a national mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign. Join your state’s Poor People’s Campaign and get involved.

The post Hundreds of Poor People, Faith Leaders from 30+ States Descend on Capitol Hill for Three-Day Poor People’s Campaign Congress, Demand Action to Address Death by Poverty appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

Last year, we released A Poor People’s Pandemic Report: Mapping the Intersections of Race, Poverty, and COVID-19, which collected data on poverty, income, and occupation as they relate to the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that poor and low income communities experienced higher death rates and infections of COVID-19 as a result of public policy failure to protect and support those experiencing interlocking injustices stemming from public policy.

And just a few weeks ago, researchers at the University of California, Riverside identified poverty as the fourth-greatest cause of death in the United States. That means in 2019, poverty silently killed 10 times as many people as homicides. Poverty is lethal. “Poverty kills as much as dementia, accidents, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes,” said David Brady, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside of the study.

We cannot accept inaction towards poverty and policy murder in the richest nation to ever exist. For that reason, we launched the Poor People’s Campaign on Mother’s Day in 2018. As we reflect on our fifth anniversary, we recognize the strides we have made while acknowledging that our work is far from over.

Across the country, over 35 state campaigns led by poor and directly impacted leaders, religious leaders, and advocates are mobilizing and organizing towards the Moral Poverty Action Congress in Washington D.C.

Together, we must continue raising demands to end poverty and low wages from the bottom up. Together, we will usher in a new era of moral revival.

Forward Together, Not One Step Back,

Bishop William J. Barber, II

National Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, President & Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis

National Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, Director of Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice

The post Message from the National Co-Chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

End Women’s Poverty: Invest in Caring Not Killing, an International Women’s Day event on March 8, was spearheaded by the California Poor People’s Campaign (PPC), with UFPJ, CODEPINK and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom among other co-sponsors. In collaboration with dozens of cosponsors and endorsers, our International Women’s Day event drew over 200 people to celebrate and honor women, and to acknowledge their contributions and recognize the challenges they continue to face. Watch the recording here.

Monique Orozco welcomed us with a land acknowledgement and urged us to learn more about the lands and Indigenous peoples wherever we are. We were lifted up by the powerful songs of Ciara Taylor from New York and Arnaé Batson from Los Angeles. It wouldn’t be our movement without music!

We heard the painful and powerful stories of women struggling to survive and fighting back: Jenina Gorman, an Indigenous woman in Pennsylvania fighting to get her children out of the system; Jacqueline Johnson in Los Angeles, persevering even after being denied healthcare to keep her alive following a bout with cancer; Kenia Alcocer demanding that immigrants be given the same rights and opportunities as the rest of us living here; Rachel West in San Francisco calling on us not to criminalize mothers for resorting to prostitution to support their children.

Women recounted the struggles they are waging in communities everywhere:

Nana Gyamfi of Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders/Reclaiming Our Sisters Everywhere spoke of the horrors of Black and Indigenous women being murdered and disappeared; Karen Frailey in southern Illinois with Shawnee Forest Defense described efforts to protect her land. And we heard from Leddy, who talked about the fearless women she works with to organize paid and unpaid domestic workers in Peru.

We were honored to be joined by some of our elders who have continued in the struggle for so long: Rev. Annie Chambers, one of the organizers of the original Poor People’s Campaign; and Dolores Huerta, one of the leaders of the United Farm Workers Union.

Two of our champions in Congress joined us as well. Rep. Gwen Moore (WI) shared her background as a single mother and spoke about the importance of restoring the Child Tax Credit. Rep. Barbara Lee (CA) urged Congress to pass her Third Reconstruction Resolution, noting that it is a “comprehensive response that prioritizes the needs of women and children.”

The danger of the war economy was a central theme. Darien De Lu of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and George Friday of United for Peace and Justice highlighted the damage that the war economy inflicts on all of us, with Jodie Evans of CODEPINK adding that “women bear the brunt of war.”

National PPC women leaders were in the house! Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis recounted the many women in the movement who have taught and inspired her through the years. “It is women who are building from the bottom up and breaking every chain,” she said. Shailly Gupta Barnes, policy director of the Kairos Center and the PPC, reminded us that “the story of poor and low-income women, caregivers, trans women, everyone who is marginalized and oppressed in this society, without the recognition, power or the pay that we deserve—never ends here…because we only get what we’re organized to take. Out of love we are here, building our power, today and every day, until we win everything that we deserve.”

The afternoon ended with another song: “Here We Come!” performed by Taína Asili.

Whether you missed the event, would like to share it with others, or would like to be inspired again, you can watch the entire event here.

The post End Women’s Poverty: Invest in Caring Not Killing – International Women’s Day event now online appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

UFPJ encourages groups around the country to organize public participatory readings of the speech this April 4 to build momentum for the Poor People’s Campaign Third Reconstruction Agenda to Heal the Nation: End Poverty and Low Wages From the Bottom Up. We have prepared a toolkit which provides everything you need to organize your own reading – in English or in Spanish. You can organize a reading in person or online.

Please let us know if you’re planning a reading!

When Dr. King gave this speech, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The country was in turmoil as peace activists resisted the draft, and anti-war and civil rights protesters took to the streets. King’s speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. And it was controversial in some parts of the civil rights movement.

In this powerful speech Dr, King provides both a diagnosis and a cure that remain fully relevant today. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism, into one “moral fusion” campaign.

Listen to an audio recording of Dr. King delivering “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” on April 4, 1967.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a national mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

The post This April 4: Organize a Public Reading of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam: Speech in Your Community appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

On September 19, The PPC launched a 50-day national voter outreach program to ensure that the poor and low-income voters are a deciding factor in the upcoming midterm elections. In 2020, the PPC reached over 2 million poor and low-income voters before the general election. Their study of the post-election data showed that an intentional effort to engage low-income voters around an agenda that addresses their critical needs has the potential to shift the nation’s policy priorities. This season the PPC aims to reach 5 million poor and low-wealth, low-propensity voters across 15 strategic priority states. With living wages, healthcare, voting rights and other issues critical to poor and low-wealth people on the ballot, this year’s elections are more crucial than ever. If we ever needed to vote for democracy & justice, we sure do need to vote now!

On September 22, a diverse group of faith leaders, whose various traditions make up millions of congregants across the country, joined Poor People’s Campaign national co-chairs Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis for an urgent Congressional briefing to implore our elected representatives to act before the midterm elections on living wages and voting rights, and to fight for the reinstatement and expansion of policies that research shows can immediately lift millions of families out of poverty. Watch the recording.

Throughout the next 50 days, thousands of PPC volunteers from across the country will be making phone calls, sending texts, knocking on doors, and canvassing neighborhoods making sure that poor and low-income people both have the tools they need to register to vote & have a voting plan.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a national mobilizing partner with the PPC. We urge you to get involved and actively participate in the voter outreach campaign! Sign up and join your state campaign here

The post Poor People’s Campaign: If we ever needed to vote for democracy and justice, we sure do need to vote now! appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

June 18 was a glorious, mild, sunny day, as we joined tens of thousands of people from all walks of life and dozens of states around the country in a display of “moral fusion” solidarity, raising up the interlocking injustices of systemic poverty, systemic racism, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.

The day was centered on the 140 million people American people directly impacted by poverty, whose compelling testimonies comprised the majority of the program, hosted by Rev. William J. Barber II, and Rev. Liz Theoharis, Co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign, a National Call for Moral Revival. During the day we heard from black, brown, Indigenous, white, trans, queer, women, and men from every corner of the nation who are poor or one paycheck away from financial collapse, in the richest country in history. We heard about the often heartbreaking impacts of the interlocking injustices from mothers, veterans, miners, teachers, fast food workers and undocumented immigrants, who had come together, with their allies in labor unions, faith denominations, racial justice, human rights, environmental and anti-war groups to speak with one voice for voting rights, health care, an end to poverty and racism, immigrant rights, gender equity, and an end to endless wars – in short, the “revolution of values” called for by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. more than 50 years ago.

As Rev. Bernice King told the crowd, “Fifty-four years ago, my father, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., launched the first Poor People’s Campaign to revolutionize the country. Decades later, ridding the nation of the evil and violence of poverty remains a moral imperative.”

“The military budget is immoral,” Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II declared, “This is why we need a third Reconstruction.” He explained that this will build on the first Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War, and the second Reconstruction, the period during the modern civil rights movement, led by Dr. King.

“We are a fusion coalition,” he said, “and we will continue our work until sick folks are healed, until affordable housing is provided, until the land and water are protected, and until saving the world is more important than blowing it up. . . . This promise is not negotiable. We won’t be silent or unseen any longer.” Read more.

Music is an important component of the Poor People’s Campaign, and the rousing musical interludes, flavored heavily by the gospel tradition, did not disappoint. There was also a new anti-war song launched for the first time.

The night before the Mass Assembly, we attended a solemn memorial service at the Lincoln Memorial, organized by the Poor People’s Campaign to remember the one million people who have died from COVID-19 and the innumerable victims of war and gun violence. Following the memorial service, we walked to the MLK Memorial, where CODEPINK organized a visually stunning “peace illumination” (see photo).

UFPJ also took part in other activities organized by the anti-militarism contingent convened by CODEPINK. On Saturday we joined a feeder march down Pennsylvania Ave. from Freedom Plaza to the Mass Assembly at 3^rd Street. On Saturday evening we attended a wonderful concert featuring world music at Malcom X Park, and on Sunday morning we participated in a peace workshop with about 60 people in attendance. Everyone was so happy to be together in person for the first time in over two years. We also visited a spirited Juneteenth celebration at Black Lives Matter Plaza in front of the White House, organized by Dia De Los Muertos.

Where do we go from here?

During the Mass Assembly, Rev. Barber and Rev. Theoharis announced a new plan: 7 Steps Before the Midterms: A Movement Declaration to Reconstruct American Democracy. Read it here.

The June 12 Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers Assembly and March on Washington and to the Polls was a major step for moral fusion organizing. Even the Washington Post acknowledged, “Instead of being presented as a grab-bag of competing progressive causes, Saturday’s event bridged different agendas and platforms with a universal call for reform and change of the political status quo.”

Our task now, as the fragments of the peace movement, is to build upon and deepen our understanding of “moral fusion” organizing in order to effectively contribute to the broad, deep, values-based, multi-issue movement we’ll need to build power and create systemic change – including ending militarism and wars — from the bottom up. Watch for more on this from UFPJ.

In the meantime

 If you weren’t able to be in DC on June 18 or to watch the livestream, watch the recording, in English or in Spanish, here.

Read 7 Steps Before the Midterms: A Movement Declaration to Reconstruct American Democracy.

Read the Poor People’s Campaign Third Reconstruction Agenda to Heal the Nation: End Poverty and Low Wages From the Bottom Up (Rev. Barber is the co-author of The Third Reconstruction, How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear.)

Find and get involved in your State Poor People’s Campaign here.

United for Peace & Justice is a proud mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign. If you were in DC on June 18 or watched the livestream, please share your impressions and thoughts with us by writing to info.ufpj@gmail.com

Forward together, Not one step back!

 The UFPJ Coordinating Committee

The post June 18, 2022: UFPJ Joins the Poor People’s Campaign Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers Assembly and March on Washington – A Declaration, Not Just a Demonstration! appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

 Please register to join us in DC! Once you register, you’ll start receiving the Digital Drum beat, inspiring weekly messages from Poor People’s Campaign Co-chairs Bishop William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, about how you can keep up the enthusiasm about the programs happening on June 18th in Washington, D.C. for your community. 

UFPJ is proud to be a mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign. We encourage you to work with your organization to also join as a mobilizing partner. Sign up here.

Find a ride on a bus near you! Through the Poor People’s Campaign partnership with Rally Co., there are buses leaving across the country to get to the Mass Poor People and Low Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. Check it out to see which one is closest to you. Click here for FAQ.

Want to do more? Sign up to be a mobilizing captain! There is still time to bring your friends, family, and community with you to Washington, D.C. As a mobilization captain, you will receive active updates on the latest news happening on June 18th. Sign up here. There will be a Rally Co. bus training on Tuesday, March 31 at 7:30 pm ET. Register here.  

Read the Organizer’s Manual here.

Spread the word by using the Digital Toolkit and the weekly Digital Drumbeat email.

Volunteers are needed in DC. Sign up here.

Go live with us on June 18 via Facebook and Twitter. 

Schedule 

June 17: On the evening of June 17, we will be holding a special community meal and memorial service to mourn the loss of 1 million+ lives to COVID-19 and to ground ourselves and prepare for the assembly and march the following morning.

• Meal at 5:00 pm ET at Freedom Plaza
• Memorial service at the Lincoln Memorial at 7:30 pm ET

June 18: To kick off the morning, there will be a Shabbat Service co-organized by Jewish partners and open to all who find such a space meaningful. 8:00 – 9:15 am ET at Freedom Plaza.

• Gathering time for the march and assembly will begin between 9:00 -10:00 am ET at 3rd and Pennsylvania Ave, NW.
• Kick-off at 10:00 am ET

Mobilization Tour

 Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign has declared: “Refusing to address the interlocking injustices and evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation & the denial of health care, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism is constitutionally inconsistent, morally indefensible, politically insensitive, and economically insane.”

In the build up to the June 18 Mass Assembly in Washington, DC, the Poor People’s Campaign made tour stops in Alabama (virtual), Texas (virtual), Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Washington, DC, New York, Pennsylvania, California, and Tennessee, to do M.O.R.E. – mobilizing, organizing, registering and educating people for a movement that votes. The final tour stop before DC took place in Memphis, Tennessee on May 23, at the exact location where Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The history of Memphis is crucial to this movement led by and for poor and low-income people. From the prolific sanitation strike in 1968, to the musical history of Beale Street, Memphis has the movement in its’ bones and the Poor Peoples’ Campaign is proud to be about of that history.

Watch this powerful 3-minute video to understand how the Poor People’s Campaign has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished business, weaving together the interlocking injustices of systemic poverty, racism, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and the distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism into one “moral fusion” campaign.

This is our time; this is our movement! Join us on June 18 to go forward together, not one step back!!

The post Let’s Bend the Arc of Justice on June18! appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.