123. Poor People’s Campaign

This week let’s chat about the Poor People’s Campaign. This is a revival of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s radical campaign to unite poor people across the country to fight for an “economic bill of rights” including a guaranteed basic income and affordable housing.

Fifty years later, the torch has been picked up by Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharris. They have dedicated their lives to fighting for the poor, and have been gaining momentum in this modern renewal of the campaign.

Tune in this week to learn about the differences between the new and the old campaign and who might feel called to join the fight.

Links from today’s episode:

Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ 

1968 Poor People’s Campaign

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People's_Campaign 

Smithsonian: 1968 Poor People's Campaign - Challenges and Successes

https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/1968-poor-peoples-campaign-challenges-and-successes 

Poor People's Campaign: Then & Now

https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/poor-peoples-campaign-then-now 

NYT article about the Poor People’s Campaign in June 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/20/us/poor-peoples-campaign-platform.html 

William Barber Takes on Poverty and Race in the Age of Trump 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/william-barber-takes-on-poverty-and-race-in-the-age-of-trump 

ICYMI another episode you might enjoy:

Episode 107- Dr. King’s Radical Money Beliefs

Connect With Genet “GG” Gimja:

Website https://www.progressivepockets.com

Twitter https://twitter.com/prgrssvpckts 

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Transcript

Welcome to Progressive Pockets! I go by GG, that’s short for Genet Gimja. This is a show about our money and our power and what we want to do with it beyond ourselves. What do we want for our communities? What do we want for our country? And for our world? What’s our place in all of this?

Today’s episode is about the Poor People’s Campaign. Sound familiar? You might be thinking about the ORIGINAL Poor People’s Campaign back in the 1960s that was led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. You will recall from episode 107 that Dr. King had some radical money beliefs. In fact, he was assassinated while he was working on the Poor People’s Campaign. Don’t let the Hallmark cards fool you. He, alongside other civil rights leaders, was working on some projects that would have absolutely overturned the way our country is run.

So let’s talk about the original Poor People’s Campaign. Here are the basics.

• The Poor People's Campaign was organized by Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to gain economic justice for all poor people in the United States, all races and ethnicities, across all states.
• After King was assassinated in April 1968, the campaign was carried out under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy.
• The campaign proposed an “economic bill of rights” with a $30 billion anti-poverty package that included a guaranteed annual income, and low-income housing.
• Organizers set up a 3,000-person protest camp called "Resurrection City" on the Washington Mall, where they stayed for six weeks in the spring of 1968.
• On June 19, 1968, an estimated 50,000 demonstrators marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, where they listened to speeches by leaders like Ralph Abernathy and Coretta Scott King. For reference, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr had been murdered only 2 months before that.
• The Poor People’s Campaign did not achieve its ambitious legislative goals of but it did mark a shift in the civil rights movement from advocating solely for racial equality to incorporating interracial class issues and economic goals.

So that’s the brief history of the original Poor People’s Campaign. I’ll include lots of good links in the show notes if you want to do a deeper dive.

In 2018, the current Poor People’s Campaign launched with an expanded name. It is called The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival.

The leaders are Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis.

• The 1968 campaign focused on economic justice for poor Americans, while the current campaign does too, but it also addresses environmental devastation, and other issues that impact the poor like a single payer health-care system, mass incarceration, the right to vote, etc. 
• Other differences…The 1968 campaign involved a six-week protest encampment called "Resurrection City" in Washington, D.C., while the current campaign has organized a series of nationwide activities, still under the umbrella of civil disobedience. So, they’ve done a coordinated 40 days of protests at statehouses across the country back in 2018. 
• The demands are bigger now. The 1968 campaign called for a $30 billion anti-poverty package and an "Economic Bill of Rights", while the current campaign has a "Moral Budget" that calls for a $350 billion investment in poor communities.

So both campaigns share a common goal of addressing poverty and economic inequality in America through nonviolent direct action and moral witness. The current campaign builds on the legacy of the 1968 campaign.

So let’s talk about outcomes and what’s next.

In 1968, they were pushing for the $30 Billion package of reforms and the economic bill of rights, there was limited success on that. Its hard to imagine that the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King didn’t halt the momentum that the movement was gaining. And it wasn’t just that, J. Edgar Hoover felt threatened by the movement and between the federal surveillance and the government trying to infiltrate the movement, the campaign just didn’t achieve as much as it really could have, and should have. Robert F. Kennedy was killed too, and that was probably also harmful to the campaign.

But some good things did come out of that movement. For example, you may be familiar with the Children’s Defense Fund, that was an outgrowth of the original campaign. 

A few months after the massive tent city protest, food programs were launched in the 1,000 neediest counties, identified by the campaign. A supplementary food program for mothers and children was also in progress by the end of the year. Also, Congress appropriated $243 million to expand and revamp school lunches to help feed hungry children. That’s from the Smithsonian’s website. Also this-

Congress extended existing labor programs, and the Senate approved an additional $5 million for Head Start (shout out to all the other Head Start alumni out there) and $13 million for summer jobs. Congress approved $139 million for the Bureau of Indian Affairs’s education and welfare services. 

So no, the 1968 campaign didn’t achieve its ambitious goals, but it definitely moved the needle in multiple regards. And this 2018 revamping seems to be getting some traction, they say they are seeing the passage of Medicaid expansion in several states and I’m looking forward to seeing more from this campaign.

What’s next? Well, the campaign is calling on Christians, Muslims, Jews, nonbelievers, blacks, Latinos, poor whites, feminists, environmentalists, and others to heed the call. Maybe that’s you? A list of actions are included on their website, poor people’s campaign dot org. I’ll include the link in the show notes and I’ll of course include more information in the newsletter too.

So to recap, here’s what we covered today:

• In 1968 around the time that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, he was leading the Poor People’s Campaign, a radical campaign to fight for the rights of all poor people in America.
• After his death, Ralph Abernathy took the helm but man, the campaign just could not catch a break, between the federal government actively working against the campaign plus losing some key allies, the campaign just didn’t go as far as it could have. There were some achievements, but they didn’t get the full $30 billion package of reforms or the economic bill of rights they were fighting for. 
• Fast forward fifty years, in 2018, the campaign was reborn, now it is called The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. It is being led by Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharris. The campaign has the same foundation- it is fighting for the rights of all poor people, and includes some broader themes now, like climate change and the right to vote and mass incarceration.
• If you want to find out about the action items, you can check them out at poor people’s campaign dot org.

If you have more time today, here’s another episode to check out, it is about Dr. King’s Radical Money Beliefs, that is episode 107.

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If you know someone that you think would enjoy this episode, please send it to them.

Let’s end with a quote and this comes from one of the co-leaders of the current Poor People’s Campaign, Rev. Dr. William Barber, he said 

“We must shock this nation with the power of love, we must shock this nation with the power of mercy,” he said. “We can’t give up on the heart of our democracy, not now, not ever!”

Let’s talk again soon!