August 21, 2020

WHAT: Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in the Moral Monday actions from the Poor People’s Campaign over the past three weeks, shutting down Sen. Mitch McConnell’s phone lines in offices in Washington, D.C., and across Kentucky and forcing him to hold a Senate hearing on the U.S. Postal Service.  

The activists of the Kentucky Poor People’s Campaign are leading the charge to challenge McConnell and the pain his policies cause

in their state and across the nation. This is our fourth national Moral Monday March on McConnell to demand that the Senate majority leader stop the misery, meanness and mayhem created by his refusal to act in the greatest public health crisis of our times and the second to focus on the dangers posed by the scheme to undermine voter confidence in the USPS. After our previous Moral Mondays, McConnell called for a Senate hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who testified before Congress on Friday. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will not stop our actions until we have a full and just COVID-19 stimulus bill and McConnell stops the attacks on USPS. 

WHO: The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, co-chaired by Rev. Dr. William Barber of Repairers of the Breach and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis of the Kairos Center. Also, Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union and its 2 million members; Rev. Jesse Jackson; and Kentucky residents who are challenging McConnell while he’s on vacation. 

WHEN: 3:30 p.m. Eastern/12:30 p.m. Pacific, Monday, Aug. 24. 

WHERE: Join online at www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/livestream

WHY: McConnell and his enablers must stop playing politics with the lives of poor people and low-wage workers, many of whom must vote by mail. It’s clear that the Kentucky senator is willing to let Postmaster General Louis DeJoy destroy the USPS as part of his effort to continue an extremist agenda. In tandem with the White House, McConnell is blocking a full and just relief package and defanging the USPS to prevent a fair election. The orchestrated removal of post office boxes and sorting machines, along with the deliberate slowdown of mail delivery, combine for yet another dangerous form of voter suppression. They also contribute to late fees on bills for people who are already suffering and expedite evictions when payment doesn’t arrive in time. 

 **The event will be open captioned & ASL interpreted.

BACKGROUND:  The Poor People’s Campaign has released a groundbreaking report titled “Unleashing the Power of Poor and Low-Income Americans: Changing the Political Landscape.” The report shows that poor and low-income people can change the political calculus of this nation in the presidential race in 15 states and 16 U.S. Senate races with just a small uptick in voting. 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. 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/PmOjcUoDhEs

Twitter: @unitethepoor / Instagram: @poorpeoplescampaign / Facebook: @ANewPPC

CONTACT: Martha Waggoner:  [email protected]