March 12, 2021
WHAT: Because 64 million voters — nearly one-third of the electorate — are poor or low-income, and a majority of those exercised their power of the ballot and voted for leaders who promised to support policies that lift from the bottom, reactionary state legislatures are responding with bills and laws meant to deny the right to vote. The next Moral Monday of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will focus on voting rights and other legislative priorities in 25+ states, where activists will post their demands on state house doors.
WHO: Leaders and activists from 30 states and DC deliver legislative demands on behalf of thousands of directly impacted Poor People’s Campaign leaders, clergy and moral advocates who stand against voter suppression and stand for voting rights. Our national co-chairs, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, will lead our online program. The participating states are: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. Nebraska will hold a virtual program.
WHEN: National program, including recaps from participating states, will be shown at 3 p.m. ET / Noon PT Monday, March 15.
WHERE: Online at https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/livestream/
WHY: The Brennan Center for Justice reports that as of Feb. 19, state lawmakers had carried over, prefiled or introduced more than 250 bills with provisions that restrict voting in 43 states. This attack comes as poor and low-income voters flexed their political muscle in the 2020 election, helping to elect leaders who promised to pass laws that lift from the bottom, including voter protection laws. In one of the first salvos in an all-out assault on voting rights, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed a bill into law that shortens periods for requesting and returning absentee ballots; curbs the use of ballot drop boxes; shortens the length of time polling places are open on Election Day and prohibits third parties from helping people fill out and return their absentee ballots. Our demand to expand and protect voting rights is among our 14 Policy Priorities to Heal the Nation: A Moral and Economic Agenda for the first 100 days.
**This online event will be ASL interpreted and open captioned.
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/PmOjcUoDhEs
Twitter: @unitethepoor / Instagram: @poorpeoplescampaign / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ANewPPC
CONTACT:
Martha Waggoner: [email protected] | 919-295-0802