Alabama Poor People's campaign launches six weeks of protest (5/14/18)

Source: AL.com, by Amy Yurkanin

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The campaign takes its name from an effort organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the late 1960s. In 1968, King and members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference began calling for federal funding to improve conditions for the poorest Americans and guaranteed jobs for those seeking work. The campaign lost momentum after James Earl Ray assassinated King in April 1968 during a Memphis sanitation strike.

"We are really passing on the mantle to today," said Angela Balfour, a board member of Greater Birmingham Ministries.

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Balfour said Greater Birmingham Ministries has taken the lead in organizing the protests in Alabama, which will take place every Monday at 2 p.m.

The Montgomery rallies will address poverty, ecological devastation, voting rights and the "war economy," Balfour said. She described the war economy as the emphasis on military spending over social programs for the poor.

Each protest will feature speakers who will share their experiences of racism, surviving on minimum wage work and environmental destruction, Balfour said. Organizers will also be registering voters for the mid-term elections.

"It's going to be a protest to raise awareness and to speak to our politicians so they speak to those issues," Balfour said. "We will also be letting them know we will be moving out with voter mobilization."

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Read it all at: https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/05/alabama_poor_peoples_campaign.html


Revs. William Barber (left) and Liz Theoharis (right) visited Lowndes County in March 2018 as part of an effort to organize a Poor People's campaign.