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poor peoples campaign
Hundreds of Poor People, Faith Leaders from 30+ States Visit More than 400 Senate, House Offices, Demand Action to Address Death by Poverty
On Day 2 of Poor People’s Campaign Moral Poverty Action Congress, Participants Hold Speakout Outside the Supreme Court, Demand Lawmakers Put an End to Poverty, Fourth Leading Cause of Death in America
Jun 21, 2023
Hundreds of Poor People’s Campaign leaders from over 30 states visited more than 400 Senate and House offices on both sides of the aisle Tuesday to demand lawmakers use their power to address poverty, which kills more people every year than homicide, but gets significantly less of the attention from politicians.
Following the visits, impacted people and faith leaders held a national speakout in front of the Supreme Court, where participants raised the alarm about the death sentence of poverty in America – the fourth leading cause of death in the country – and honored loved ones lost to poverty.
They then walked to the Capitol, where they joined Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Barbara Lee, who announced plans to reintroduce Wednesday a Third Reconstruction Resolution–a sweeping package of 20+ policies to tackle poverty and address other systemic injustices.
“Can you name the top 10 causes of death in America?” Bishop William J. Barber asked the crowd in front of the Supreme Court. “It would come as a surprise to many to know that poverty is right up there–in fact many ills that have inspired investigative committees, major policy investment and sustained attention from the public and private sectors kill less people than poverty.”
On Wednesday, Bishop Barber will lead a delegate of the Moral Movement to the White House. He will be joined by faith leaders, impacted people in the Poor People’s Campaign, Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry, and others to meet with senior officials to plan a meeting this summer with President Biden to hear from directly impacted people urge the administration to address the death by poverty that is devastating our nation.
“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.”
AMERICA’S SHAME
At the speakout, poor people and faith leaders held signs that read, “Everybody’s Got a Right to Live,” “Lift from the Bottom, Everybody Rises” and “There are 140 Million Poor and Low Wealth People in the U.S.” They wore t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Poverty is the 4th Leading Cause of Death – Higher than Homicide,” and “Poverty = Death, America’s Shame” and they chanted “Poverty equals Death, Fight Poverty, Not the Poor.”
“Thirty-nine percent of our population in Ohio lives in poverty,” said Joyce Kendrick Middletown, Ohio. “During that time, Congress expanded the social safety net. With stimulus payments and extra SNAP benefits, I was hoping to finally, maybe break out of the survival mode I was in. All that is gone. Lawmakers let the SNAP expansion and other pandemic programs expire. I’m back in survival mode. I’m back to choosing between proper medical care and a proper meal. I need stronger safety net protections that won’t be taken away by lawmakers or by complicated eligibility requirements.”
The Moral Poverty Action Congress comes as hundreds of thousands of Americans are being kicked off of 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.
“My son, Quantez Burks, 37 years old was put in jail on a misdemeanor charge. Little did he know that he had 18 hours left in his life and wouldn’t see day again. My son was brutally beaten by correctional officers at the Southern Regional Jail,” said Kimberley Burks, of West Virginia. “I’m not going to be silent anymore. My son was 37 years old. He was a homeowner, he was a father, his daughter just graduated from Ohio State University. He was in there on a misdemeanor charge. I will not remain quiet anymore. Because we’re poor we’re going to be washed away, swept under the rug, looked over. We’re not having it anymore.”
This year’s Congress builds off The Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls last June, in which thousands of poor and low-wealth people marched and rallied ahead of a massive voter mobilization drive for the midterm elections.
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Poor People's Campaign MLK Message to White House and Congress
On MLK Day, Poor People's Campaign delivers video message calling on President, Congressional Leaders, to meet to address urgent needs
Jan 16, 2023
To mark Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Monday sent a video message to the White House and every member of Congress demanding the president and Congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle meet with poor and low-wealth people, religious leaders, economists, lawyers and public health specialists to address the systemic policy violence that threatens the soul of our nation.
"When prophets are killed or assassinated, our job is to pick up the baton and continue the work," the Rev. William J. Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, said in the video message. "Sadly, many will go to King events today and claim to honor the prophet. Elected officials on both sides of the aisle will go while even today, they are standing diametrically opposed to the things he fought for: addressing systemic poverty, addressing racism, ensuring voter protection, just immigration policy, just treatment of indigenous people, health care for all, and dealing with the war economy and militarism."
Addressing Republicans and Democrats alike, the Rev. Barber demanded meetings to address poverty, voting rights, and more. He expressed the unwavering commitment of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to continue the fight for a public policy agenda that adequately addresses the needs of 140 million poor and low-wealth people in the country. The Poor People’s Campaign said it would dispatch its members in the coming days to make demands in their home districts to their Congressional representatives because refusal to act on issues like living wages and voting rights while people are dying is unacceptable.
“Our movement must grow, it must intensify, It must be emboldened,” said the Rev. Barber. “What we cannot and will not do is be silent or unseen anymore.”
Poor People's Campaign Petition Congress to Truly Honor MLK Legacy | Press Conference youtu.be
The request to meet with President Biden follows a letter sent to him from campaign leaders in September 2021 during the debate around Build Back Better demanding a meeting. And it comes after the president pledged on the campaign trail in 2020 and to the Poor People’s Camapign in 2021 that ending poverty would be a "theory of change" for his administration.
“This Martin Luther King Day, we must continue a campaign for social, political and economic rights, not simply commemorate a man,” said the Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. “Today and every day let’s honor King as we end racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the denial of health care, militarism, and this false narrative of Christian nationalism.”
The video includes messages from impacted people from North Carolina to West Virginia to Kentucky to California, calling on elected officials to fight for health care, living wages and more so everyone can thrive. The messages come from: Xzandria Armstrong from East Point, Georgia; Jake Kastenhuber from Ithaca, New York; Tiffany Pyette, from Jenkins, Kentucky; Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs, president of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network; Matthew Byers of North Carolina; Pam Garrison of Fayette County, West Virginia; and Kenia Alcocer of Los Angeles, California.
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Poor People's Campaign Reaches Over 5 Million Poor, Low-Propensity Voters Ahead of Midterms
Virtual rally Thursday to kick-off final GOTV push in five key states before Election Day
Nov 02, 2022
This week, the Poor People's Campaign reached a milestone in its effort to mobilize poor, low-propensity voters to the polls ahead of the midterms: over 5.1 million voters have been contacted in 15 priority states, representing 1 out of every 50 eligible voters.
These priority states include Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. Some 1,000 volunteers reached these 5.1 million voters via text, door knocking and visiting churches and community events.
On September 19, 2022, 50 days before the midterms, the Poor People's Campaign began its final push to reach 5 million poor and low-wage voters and ensure they are at the center of the national narrative around the elections. The goal of reaching 5 million voters more than doubled the Campaign's efforts in 2020, when 2.1 million poor and low-wage voters were contacted in priority states.
"Poor and low-wage voters, who in many states represent over 40 percent of the electorate, have been rejected by the politics of trickle-down economics and greed," said Bishop William Barber, the campaign's co-chair. "Until children are protected, until sick people are healed, until low-wage workers are paid, until immigrants are treated fairly, until women's rights are secured and all people respected, until affordable houses are provided, until the land and water are protected, until saving the world is more important than blowing up the world, we won't be silent anymore. We will mobilize, organize, register and educate to unleash the power and agenda of poor and low wage people."
To kick-off the final stretch of GOTV efforts ahead of Election Day, the Campaign is hosting a virtual rally on Thursday featuring stories of impacted people and to ensure that voters in key states including North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio are registered to vote and equipped with a voting plan.
WHO: Poor People's Campaign National Co-chairs Bishop William J. Barber II, President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice
WHAT: National Virtual GOTV Rally
WHERE: PoorPeoplesCampaign.org/Livestream
WHEN: Thursday, November 3, 2022 at 8PM ET
"The priorities of poor and low-wage people are on the ballot in these midterm elections" said Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Campaign. "It's time to vote for policies and politicians that center the needs of poor and low-wealth people, including health care for all, living wages, and social programs that lift the load of poverty. Too many people are hurting and dying because of immoral policies. We are voting to make our demands heard at the ballot box."
Poor and low wage voters have power that is yet to be fully realized. Over fifty million low-wage people voted in the 2020 presidential election, accounting for one-third of the electorate and even greater proportions in battleground states, according to a study by the Poor People's Campaign released last year. Yet over 80 million low-wage people were eligible to cast a ballot, meaning more than 30 million people left their votes on the table. In many states, less than 20 percent of these voters could change the outcome of races in their area. The Poor People's Campaign is determined to mobilize these voters, and demand an agenda that lifts society from the ground up.
The 15 priority states reflect those with high percentages of low-income voters (LIV) who turned out in 2020, as well as a high percentage of LIV as a percentage of the overall electorate. In Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, the number of voters reached has outpaced the margin of victory in each state from the 2020 presidential election. A state-by-state breakdown of voters reached through the National Voter Outreach Program as of November 1, 2022 is included below:
Alabama: 267,217
Arizona: 209,440
Florida: 218,912
Georgia: 731,785
Illinois: 171,414
Kentucky: 119,957
Michigan: 315,509
Mississippi: 196,322
North Carolina: 718,717
Ohio: 473,750
Pennsylvania: 614,991
South Carolina: 288,376
Texas: 444,021
Wisconsin: 226,507
West Virginia: 46,962
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Moral Monday comes to Jackson today as residents of Mississippi's state capital still struggle with need for clean water
Poor People’s Campaign leads march, holds rally today
Sep 26, 2022
As Congress considers a new way to get money to Jackson, Mississippi, to fix the decades-old problem of unclean water, residents who still rely on bottled water for the most basic parts of living such as bathing and brushing their teeth will join a Moral Monday march in the state capital to draw more attention to their suffering.
Under the banner of "Free the Land, Clean the Water, Keep It Public," the Mississippi Poor People's Campaign will lead the march, which begins at 4 p.m. CT today (Sept. 26) at Mt. Helm Baptist Church, 300 E. Church St. Beginning at 4:30 p.m., people will march to the intersection of Capitol and Congress streets, where a rally begins at 5:30 p.m. CT.
Bishop William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, will join the march and rally. The live stream will be available here.
At an online Moral Monday: Mississippi Voices on Sept. 12, residents talked about the pain of dealing with the water crisis.
"My wife and I, we want to start growing our family," Jackson resident Chris Ellis said during the program. "I know I don't want to be bathing my babies in this."
The water crisis, which is one of many in Jackson over the past few decades because of the city's infrastructure issues, left about 175,000 residents without safe drinking water. The most recent one began at the end of August when a historic rainfall caused a severe drop in water pressure.
Water pressure has been restored, and a boil-water advisory was lifted Sept. 15.
The Jackson water crisis dates to the 1970s, and the city has had plans to improve since 1997. The most recent plan was issued in 2013. Its efforts to upgrade the system have been thwarted by a governor's veto of bipartisan legislation to give the city more ability to collect payments from a private company for its flawed billing and meter systems; the state's refusal to provide necessary funding and other poor decisions.
The city of Jackson is 82% Black, and 48% of people, or 1.3 million residents, in Mississippi are poor or low-income. That includes 58% of children (417,000), 52% of women (792,000), 65% of Black people (708,000), 66% of Latinx people (54,000), and 39% of White people (649,000).
POLITICO reported on Wednesday, Sept. 21, that House appropriators are considering sending as much as $200 million to address the drinking water crisis as part of the stop-gap spending measure to fund the government past Sept. 30.
Documents obtained by POLITICO show draft language that would allow the EPA to send the money directly to the city rather than through the Republican-controlled state government. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson and other Democrats have accused the state of withholding resources from Jackson.
In addition to their roles with the PPC:NCMR, Bishop Barber also is president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach and Rev. Dr. Theoharis is director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice.
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