Rev. William Barber on the Political Power of Poor People: ‘We Have to Change Our Whole Narrative’

Reverend William Barber speaks to the press in 2016. Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images Not long before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. announced the formation of the Poor People’s Campaign. The project would eventually unite poor whites from Appalachia with farmworkers, indigenous people, and black civil-rights activists. After King’s death in 1968, the campaign marshaled a significant mobilization in Washington, D.C., and then went quiet — until 2017. Revived by Reverend William Barber and Reverend Liz Theoharis, the renewed Poor People’s Campaign continues the mission set out by King and his allies so many decades ago. Its ambitions are broad: On its website, it says it intends to “lift up and deepen the leadership of those most affected by systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation.” It goes on to state, bluntly, that “people should not live in or die from poverty in the richest nation ever to exist.” Since its revival, the multiracial, interfaith campaign organized six weeks of civil disobedience last year in addition to bus tours of impoverished communities. Earlier this year, the campaign also hosted several Democratic candidates for president, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris, at a forum so they could… Read full this story

Rev. William Barber on the Political Power of Poor People: ‘We Have to Change Our Whole Narrative’ have 304 words, post on nymag.com at December 5, 2019. This is cached page on Business Breaking News. If you want remove this page, please contact us.