September 21, 2020
WHAT: In the aftermath of the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we are holding our sixth national Moral Monday March on McConnell to demand that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell end his hypocrisy about U.S. Supreme Court nominations. This Monday, in addition to flooding his phone lines at offices in Kentucky and Washington, D.C., activists will protest in caravans. In 2016, McConnell refused a vote on President Obama’s selection for the court — 11 months before the presidential election. Now, with less than two months before the 2020 election, McConnell has vowed to hold a vote on President Trump’s nominee to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ginsburg’s death. We also continue to protest McConnell’s misery, meanness and mayhem caused by his refusal to unblock bills that help all people, including a fair and full COVID-19 stimulus bill, policing reform bill and money to protect the vote.
WHO: The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, co-chaired by Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, along with state leaders and activists and actress Ashley Judd, who grew up in Kentucky and graduated from the University of Kentucky.
WHEN: 2:30 p.m. Central/3:30 p.m. Eastern Monday, Sept. 21
WHERE: Caravans will drive around McConnell’s offices in Kentucky: London, Lexington, Fort Wright, Louisville, Bowling Green and Paducah and his home in Washington, D.C. Email [email protected] if you want to join a caravan. You can also join online at www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/livestream.
WHY: The next Supreme Court justice will rule on health care, voting rights and corporate power. We cannot stand by and watch a hostile, immoral takeover of the court. And McConnell must be held to his words from 2016 when President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill the court vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” The Senate never voted on Garland’s nomination, and we cannot allow a vote on the next nominee.
**The event will be captioned and ASL interpreted.
BACKGROUND: The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, is nonpartisan but political. With organizing committees in 45 states, the campaign 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
CONTACTS:
Martha Waggoner: [email protected]
Michael Gramling (for Kentucky caravan details): [email protected]
Zillah Wesley (for DC caravan details): [email protected]