Social justice, labor, religious leaders will march with poor & low-income women as part of season of nonviolent direct action
Reporters can RSVP here
The executive director of MoveOn, the secretary-treasurer of the CWA and the co-moderator of the Presbyterian Church are among the 100 social justice, labor and religious leaders joining with Poor People’s Campaign state members for the Women’s March on Washington on Monday, the anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.
Rahna Epting, Sara Steffens and Cindy Kohlmann will join the rally and march at 11 a.m. Monday, starting outside the U.S. Supreme Court to protect voting rights, including passage of the For the People’s Act and the fully restored Voting Rights Act; an end to the filibuster and enactment of a $15/hour minimum wage.
The program comes on the anniversary of Seneca Falls, the first women’s rights convention in the U.S.
Poor and low-income women from over 30 states will participate, including several states that have passed voter suppression laws this year: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma and Texas.
The program will be led by Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis and Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign; Roz Pelles, strategic adviser to the campaign, and Shailly Gupta Barnes, policy director for the campaign.
The 100 participants represent the 100 signatures on the Declaration of Sentiments 173 years ago. The Women’s Moral Monday March will demand to change a broken system that disproportionately affects women of color and poor women.
Over 140 million people are poor or one emergency away from economic ruin, including more than 70 million women of all races, gender, and sexual orientations and faith traditions.
Even as they celebrate women’s rights, the participants note that Seneca Falls fell far short of a moral outcome as it excluded the participation of Black and other oppressed women.
WHAT: Women’s Moral March on Washington
WHEN: 11 a.m. ET Monday, July 19, 2021
WHERE: U.S. Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. — Livestream link is here.
Background The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up this unfinished work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. From Alaska to Arkansas, the Bronx to the border, people are coming together to confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. The Poor People’s Campaign understands that as a nation the U.S. is at a critical juncture – that it needs a movement that will shift the moral narrative, impact policies and elections at every level of government, and build lasting power for poor and impacted people.