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Campaign steering committee member. He explained the original Poor People's Campaign was a fusion movement for economic justice that grew out of the Civil Rights movement. Natives Chicano's, poor whites from Appalachia, and welfare rights organizations from northern cities joined black folks from the South to demand an economy that works for everyone. That coalition won some real gains with the War on Poverty, the Fair Housing Act, and the

legislative advocacy of the Children's Defense Fund. President Lyndon Johnson declared the War on Poverty in nineteen sixty four, year in which nineteen percent of Americans about thirty five million

people at the time, lived below the poverty level. King was motivated to call for representatives from various geographic and racial groups to help gain federal funding for a number of social programs, including a form of universal basic income, plus housing for the poor, and other anti poverty programs.

In November of nineteen sixty seven, King and the staff of the SCLC met and decided to launch the Poor People's Campaign to highlight and find solutions to many of the problems facing poverty stricken people in the United States. The initial objective was to address rampant economic inequalities with non violent direct action in a widespread form of civil

disobedience known as the Poor People's March. King, however, was assassinated before the culmination of the organization's efforts took place. Following his death, King's longtime friend Ralph Abernathy led the march, which included an estimated fifty thou demonstrators walking from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, as well as speeches from Abernathy, then Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Democratic presidential candidate

Eugene McCarthy, and King's widow, Coretta Scott King. While the original movement led to some major societal wins, it was also met with a fair amount of opposition. Five days after the march, authorities closed the temporary camp the demonstrators had erected, known as Resurrection City, that stood on the

National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial. Over a hundred residents were arrested when they refused to leave the site, and others like Abernathy, were arrested during a demonstration at the U. S. Capital Building. Wilson Hartgrove says that the aftermath of the initial event was disheartening. He said poor people's demands were silenced by public narrative that blamed poor people for their problems.

While the blowback could have stopped the organizers in their tracks, those at the core of the poor People's campaign were unfazed. Wilson hart Grove said. Over the past decades, many grassroots organizations have intensified their efforts to expose the fundamental lie that the world's largest economy cannot afford to meet the

basic needs of all of its people. Several of those efforts began to gain national attention in when Moral Mondays, The Fight for Fifteen, and Black Lives Matter all emerged during the same summer as grassroots coalitions of people taking direct action to reclaim democracy for the common good. They were challenging the same entrenched powers as movements that were building to address immigrant justice, environmental justice, native land rights, homelessness,

and public education. Originally known as the Poor People's Campaign, the modern incarnation of the movement is officially known as Poor People's Campaign. A National Call for Moral Revival. Wilson Heartgrove explains that the addendum is significant to today's continued struggles for justice and equality. He said, revival is an alternative to reform. One of the things that our current moment has revealed is that various efforts to reform our

system haven't worked. It's still killing us. It's killed two hundred and thirty eight thousand people through failed response to COVID. It's killing more African Americans through police murders than were lynched the height of Jim Crow's terrorism in the South, and it's killing still more people from poverty. For too long, America has been comfortable with this level of death, and it has killed something inside of us. It has hardened

our collective heart. Our call for revival is a call to choose life, to refuse to be comfortable with the level of death our current system tolerates. It's a call to reconstruct the system, to remake the world we are living in to reflect love, justice and mercy. Several modern leaders have been credited with the continuation of the efforts put forth by the Poor People's Campaign, including Reverend William J. Barber the Second and Reverend Doctor Liz the o'haris, who

serve as co chairs for the Poor People's Campaign. Wilson hart Grove says that the organization began to invite the emerging grassroots movements into a quote national moral Fusion coalition to connect the visionary work of our elders in the

nineteen sixties with the leaderful moments of today. The overarching goal of the organization, he says, has always been to win justice for poor people by shifting quote the more a narrative in the country from the distortions of the culture War and the politics of left versus right to the moral fundamental question of whether we are living up

toward deepest constitutional and moral commitments. In Sparked by the murders of black men and women like George Floyd and Brianna Taylor, the Black Lives Matter movement has gained massive momentum, a phenomenon that Wilson Heartgrove explains ties directly to the Poor People's Campaign. He said, people who have witnessed police brutality and amass incarcerations disproportionate impact on African Americans cry Black Lives Matter as a way of naming systemic racism

as a dehumanizing reality. They're organizing to demand change in places like Ferguson has been exceptional and many people from those grassroots movements have been part of the Poor People Campaign's coalition buildings since we officially relaunched the campaign in It's important to remember that Rosa Parks was organizing against police brutality in Detroit, Michigan in nineteen sixty eight when the original Poor People's Campaign came to Washington, so a

challenge to racist policing has always been a part of this movement. While anti racism has historically been at the root of the organization's mission, the magnitude of recent protests indicates an unprecedented wake up call to many. Wilson Heartgrove said.

The protests have shown the effectiveness of mass, nonviolent demonstrations to shift public opinion, and they have led many people who have marched to ask the next question what changes are needed in our public life to address systemic racism. We have said all along that we can't address systemic racism apart from poverty, environmental degradation, militarism, and the distorted

moral narrative of religious nationalism. So a lot of people have come into the coalition grateful for an analysis that can make the connections between issues, an agenda that makes clear what's needed, and a budget that shows how we could do it now if we had the political will. During the election season, the organizers ramped up efforts to inform the public about their right to vote and to engage politicians at both the national and state level about

their campaign's issues. Wilson heart Grow said, We've done the research and know that nationwide, poor and low income people vote at rates much lower than high income groups. But we also know of places where just a five to ten percent increase in low income voters could shift the political landscape, forcing politicians to listen to the needs of everyday Americans. So we are inviting people to do that work of educating and mobilizing their neighbors, and folks can

sign up to do that wherever they are. Today's episode was written by Michelle Coknstantinovski and produced by Tyler Flang. For more and that's in lots of other curious topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. Or more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or where every listen to your favorite shows