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Linking Systemic Racism and Poverty: Voting Rights, Immigration, And Mistreatment Of Indigenous Communities

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, IIMay 24

President of Repairers of the Breach, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, & author of The Third Reconstruction.

Dear America,

The fight continues.

On Monday we engaged in our second week of nonviolent moral fusion direct action in Washington D.C. and over 30 states across the nation. Moral activists and impacted persons leading the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival are demanding that federal and state governments enact policies that respond to the urgent needs of the poor. We are insisting that the concerns of poor people get a hearing in our legislative halls.

This week, our theme was Linking Systemic Racism and Poverty: Voting Rights, Immigration, and Mistreatment of Indigenous Communities. Since 2010, 23 states have passed racist voter suppression laws. Instead of protecting voters, Congress has refused to restore the Voting Rights Act for over 1,700 days. Many of the same politicians who’ve refused to act on voting rights also used racist voter suppression tactics and gerrymandering laws to get elected. And now that they’re in power, they pass laws denying health care, refuse to give American workers living wages, and refuse to act on strengthening gun laws. They enact legislation that attacks women, children, the disabled, the poor, African Americans and other communities of color. Their policies hurt the most vulnerable of our people regardless of race, creed and sexual orientation, including more poor whites (in raw numbers), who overwhelmingly vote these extreme politicians into office.

These are the same politicians who deported 340,000 immigrants in 2016 who came to this country seeking better opportunities and a better life for themselves and their families. These are the same politicians who are locking up this country’s black, brown, and poor white people, keeping them imprisoned for minor infractions, creating a modern day form of Jim Crow. By incarcerating our black, brown, and poor white sisters and brothers, they can strip away their right to vote and their right to decide who is representing them in their state and federal government.

This is why activists were arrested this week from New York and Vermont, to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and many other states. Across this nation we are crying out: somebody is hurting our people and it’s gone on far too long, and we we won’t be silent anymore!

Will you join us? We need you this upcoming Tuesday (Memorial Day is a holiday), and the following Mondays until June 23 in your state and Washington D.C. Click here to sign on now and commit to participating on the ground or share your support online using the #PoorPeoplesCampaign hashtag.

The time for action is now.

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Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II

President of Repairers of the Breach, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, & author of The Third Reconstruction.