A Nonviolent Army of the Poor is Rising Up! Entering the Next Phase of the Kairos Center

Kairos Center
Category: Poor People's Campaign

On Saturday, June 23, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival marched on the U.S. Capitol to say no to the war on the poor. Our Mass Rally & Moral Revival in Washington, DC capped off an intense week-long vigil on the National Mall, the 2018 version of the 1968 campaign’s Resurrection City. During the week, we engaged in storytelling circles, arts & culture nights, poor people’s history tours of our nation’s capital, and moral direct actions at the agencies that enforce policy violence against the poor and dispossessed. The vigil was the culmination of a momentous six weeks of actions, the launch phase of the new Poor People’s Campaign.

Follow along with the events of June 23’s Stand Against Poverty Mass Rally & Moral Revival by clicking here to view more images and video from throughout the day.
With the #40DaysOfAction, we have laid a powerful foundation for our call for a moral revival. Now the next phase of our movement begins: one in which we must make thinkers out of fighters and fighters out of thinkers, to build a broad social movement for the long haul.
Kairos Center staff, alumni, Poverty Scholars, and Poverty Fellows across the country worked every day of the #40DaysOfAction to build up the Poor People’s Campaign, serving on state coordinating committees, national teams, and participating in moral direct actions in nearly 40 states.
And the work continues. Earlier today, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-director of the Kairos Center and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, joined Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Catherine Flowers of Lowndes County, AL, and Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, for a discussion with The Guardian on how the United States’ vast inequality and the Trump administration’s apparent determination to exacerbate it are posing a direct threat to human rights. View The Guardian’s video of the event below:
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During the conversation, Rev. Theoharis says that poor people’s needs are not being met by either political party in our country, but that we can and must build the power of poor people to change that: “We’re not waiting for politicians to save us.” Now that we are entering the next phase of the Poor People’s Campaign, a time of deep-dive organizing and power building among the poor, the Kairos Center’s work is more vital than ever before. Along with thousands of others, we are the new unsettling force that Dr. King knew was necessary to save the soul of our nation.
Watch this space for news of the next phase of our work and the work of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and consider making a donation to sustain the Kairos Center for the struggles to come. And to all who helped us build up the Poor People’s Campaign during this historic season of moral fusion direct action: thank you, we love you!