Hundreds of faith leaders will join poor people and low-wage workers in direct action on Capitol Hill during a National Moral Monday as the Poor People’s Campaign continues to pressure the U.S. Senate to end the filibuster and save democracy.
The National Moral Monday is part of the Season of Nonviolent Moral Direct Action that the Poor People’s Campaign launched earlier this month. It will begin at 10:45 a.m Monday, Aug. 2, at Union Plaza in Washington, D.C. The event will be available on live stream.
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and its partners began the Season of Nonviolent Moral Direct Action in July with these demands.
- Restoration of the full Voting Rights Act
- Passage of the For the People’s Act
- An increase in the federal minimum wage to $15/hour
- An end to the filibuster
- Fair and respectful treatment of the nation’s 11 million immigrants
Those demands must be met by Aug. 6, the 56th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.
“We’re witnessing a political insurrection to achieve what domestic terrorists failed to do on January 6th,” said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach. “We are demanding an end to the filibuster to protect democracy and enact policies the vast majority of Americans support.”
The National Moral Monday will follow a 27-mile, four-day National Moral March for Democracy from Georgetown to Austin in Texas. The march began July 28 and concludes July 31 with a rally at the state Capitol in Austin.
“We are living in a moment when 17 states have passed voter restrictions in the past since 2020 an almost 400 voter suppression bills have been introduced in the states,” said Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice. “And we see the connection between this attack on voting rights and all of the other issues that impact the 140 million poor and low-income people in this country.”
The Aug. 2 Moral Monday includes the singing of the song, “Song for the People,” for 24 hours and 19 minutes, one minute longer than the longest filibuster ever, by Sen. Strom Thurmond, when he unsuccessfully tried to derail the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
Various musicians, including song leaders from the Poor People’s Campaign, led by Nate Dewart of Song for Good and Lu Aya of the Peace Poets, will perform from the National Mall and online, beginning at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 1. A Tik Tok duet challenge was issued July 20.
The season began with a news conference and national call-in to U.S. senators, followed by a Women’s Moral March where nearly 100 women were arrested during a protest.
On July 26th, Rev. Barber was arrested during a sit-in at the Phoenix office of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to demand that she support an end to the filibuster. Rev. Jesse Jackson and Barbara Arnwine, founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, also were arrested, along with dozens of Arizonans.
Almost 30 states also held direct actions at the state offices of U.S. senators, and four people were arrested at the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein in Los Angeles; four at the office of Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Gulfport, Mississippi, and four at the office of Sen. Susan Collins in Portland, Maine.
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SUBJECT LINE: Saving democracy: Moral Monday returns to DC with faith leaders, poor people