April 9, 2021

WHAT: Poverty is a sin and the federal poverty measure is a disgrace. Join the Poor People’s Campaign online for Moral Monday: Poverty (Un) Measured to hear from poor and low-income people, economists and faith leaders who will challenge the dominant narratives on poverty, which minimizes the extent of poverty, blames poor people and racializes poverty in order to disrupt multi-racial solidarity. 

WHO: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, along with representatives from the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, public health advisers and people who are poor even though their income is above this country’s official, but antiquated, poverty line. 

WHEN: 3 p.m. ET/noon PT on Monday, April 12 

WHERE: Online at https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/livestream/  

WHY: As Congress debates a long overdue infrastructure bill, and we continue to fight for voting rights, labor rights, immigrant rights and living wages, we will hear how narratives scapegoating poor people are translated into policies that further concentrate power and money in the hands of a few. These policies deny adequate health care, housing, clean water and sanitation, good jobs and welfare programs, and feed attacks on our democratic participation. We have the opportunity to rebuild this nation from the bottom up, lifting up communities that have faced deindustrialization, disinvestment and the devastation of the climate crisis.

BACKGROUND:  Nationally, more than 140 million poor and low-income people live in the United States, or 43% of the country’s population, and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 250,000 die each year from poverty. Among those 140 million people are: 52.2% or 39 million children (below 18);  41.9% or 21 million elders (above 65); 42.6% or 65.8 million men; 45% or 74.2 million women; 60.4% or 26 million Black people; 64.1% or 38 million Latinx people; 40.8% or 8 million Asian people; 58.9% or 2.14 million Native/Indigenous people;  33.5% or 66 million white people. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, with organizing committees in 45 states, is building a moral fusion movement to address the five interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism and a distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. Our demands are reflected in our Jubilee Platform.  

For additional information: poorpeoplescampaign.org  https://youtu.be/PmOjcUoDhEsTwitter: @unitethepoor / Instagram: @poorpeoplescampaign / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ANewPPC

CONTACT: Martha Waggoner | [email protected]  | 919-295-0802