The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and its co-chairs, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Kairos co-director Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, have been all over the country this summer and fall for a series of Mass Meetings held, so far, in 11 different states. With this new visibility, the Campaign has continued to receive attention in the press and other media. Here are some of the recent highlights.
The Binghamton Mass Meeting of the Poor People’s Campaign was highlighted by the Ithaca Times, which wrote,
A broad coalition committed to this “revolution in values” because so many different organizations have become frustrated by treating symptoms while the disease grows worse. More than 45 percent of all Americans have low incomes, which means that they earn less than twice the official federal threshold of poverty. In the City of Ithaca, 23 percent of the non-student population lives below the official poverty line, according to the county health department, and many more are just scraping by in a city where the living wage for full-time workers is $15.11 an hour. The campaign aims to organize poor people into a “nonviolent army” to demand change. [Read the rest of the article here.]
A few days later, the Poor People’s Campaign at the Border in El Paso, TX and Sunland Park, NM was a powerful event that condemned the border wall as a symbol of white nationalism, a racist obscenity that divides families and damages the US claim to moral authority. The event received a large amount of coverage in the local and national press.
The El Paso Times reports,
The Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the civil rights campaign, said that while Sessions talked about the criminality and illegality of people on the other side of the wall, Americans must question the values at the heart of the nation.
“For anyone who claims to be a Christian, let us remember that we follow a savior who was poor, undocumented, the child of a teenage mother who was living under foreign domination, who is considered illegal and killed by the state for trying to create a movement to unite people, and to make life better for everyone,” she said. [Read the rest of the article here, and view images from the event here.]
Local news ABC 7 KVIA reported on the air with a great video of the event.
The Albuquerque Journal likewise filmed the event, quoting Rev. Dr. Barber,
“We had the nerve to go over to Germany, and rightfully so, and send the president there who said, ‘Tear down this wall.’ America loses her moral authority unless we unite together (to) say tear down this wall, as well,” Barber said. [Read the rest of the article here.]
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Finally, the Poor People’s Campaign has caught the attention of the national and global press, both with the recent profile in The Guardian of Rev. Dr. Barber and his travels through Chicago, North Carolina, and El Paso, and coverage from Sunland Park, NM in The Washington Post:
During the border protest this week, Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, reached across through spaces in the metal fence and blessed several children that came to ask for a dollar from protesters and organizers.
“I just looked through that wall and didn’t see criminals or rapists,” Barber said, referring to Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants during the 2016 campaign. “I saw children.” [Read the rest of the article here.]
If you missed the livestreams of the recent Poor People’s Campaign Mass Meetings, view them here, along with other articles, Twitter moments, and other media from the events.
The next stop of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will be in Seattle, Washington on Monday, November 6. Join us as we continue to build a powerful movement led by the poor and dispossessed to end poverty, racism, militarism, and ecological destruction, forever.