PPC Congressional Forum Video Jun 12 2018 from Brava Media on Vimeo.

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

Uniting America to challenge poverty, racism, the war economy, ecological devastation & our distorted moral narrative.

The Problem

140 million Americans are poor or low income, 80% of us experience poverty at some point in our lives, and we have fewer voting rights today than we did 50 years ago. We are divided along so many lines – race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, culture, geography (urban/rural, north/south), political party, right/left, union membership, veteran status, employment status, housing status, immigration status, and so forth. The interconnected evils of poverty, structural racism, militarism, ecological devastation, and a distorted moral narrative – all of which create suffering for hundreds of millions of people in our country – are largely absent from our national conversation. The poor are largely absent from both our national conversation and from our democracy in general. As income declines so does the likelihood of voting. The news cycles focus on the scandals of the day rather than the deep economic, social and political issues of our time. America needs a moral reset.

The Solution

The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral revival unites tens of thousands to challenge interconnected evils of poverty, racism, militarism, ecological devastation and a distorted moral narrative. Dr. King launched the original Poor People’s Campaign 50 years ago and we embrace his vision of uniting the poor as a powerful force to transform America so people can thrive rather than merely survive.

The PPCNCMR is a vehicle for taking action together. We just completed 40 Days of Moral Action with 50,000+ participants, more than 5,000 conducting nonviolent civil disobedience, and millions reached through media. This fall, Campaign committees in 40 states will build on our success and base with a deep-dive moral fusion organizing drive including registering people to vote and join the movement. We will begin to create an organized block of poor voters who will invite state/local politicians to Truth Hearings (some led by Revs. Barber & Theoharis) to LISTEN to the impact of the evils and hear the call for change.

The Campaign unites the poor, moral leaders and others through action, reflection, education & cultural engagement and pushes for policy change to improve the lives of 140 million poor and impacted people in the US. This fall we aim to see broader and deeper engagement of impacted people both in the Campaign and at the polls. Longer-term, we continue to grow a diverse, state-based social movement uniting America around a people-centered moral agenda (see Demands at poorpeoplescampaign.org) and building power to actualize that agenda.

Planned Use Of Funds

We would be thrilled to win the round and would use funding to power our door-to-door voter registration and organizing canvass in poor and marginalized communities as well as a series of hundreds of Truth Hearings around the country. Our canvassers are committed leaders in the states being supported by a small national team of paid organizers. We would using funding to have pledge cards printed, pay for food at trainings, and pay travel costs for Rev. Barber, Rev. Theoharis and other Campaign leaders to attend hearings in key states.