A year ago, the Charlottesville rally shined a light on white supremacists and sparked overdue conversations.
Watch this very informative PBS News Hour piece on what has happened since the Charlottesville incident one year ago. It speaks to the status, the problems and notably some favorable developments in our country (minute 9:00+).
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.
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.
