Poor People's Campaign

Directly impacted people from AZ, WV, TX, GA, NY, FL to speak at DC rally; people from AL, AR, DE, ME, MA, NC, OH, PA, RI, & SC will join, along with moral, religious leaders from dozens of denominations

Motorcade to the Moral Monday March on Washington leaves from Manchin’s office in Martinsburg, WV

Contact: Martha Waggoner | [email protected]

“Get it done in ‘21!”

That’s the rallying cry for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival when it and dozens of partners hold a rally at noon Monday, Dec. 13, beginning at Union Square in support of voting rights protections and Build Back Better

Nonviolent moral direct action on Capitol Hill will follow the rally as low-wage workers, parents who need childcare, and people without access to healthcare demand meetings with senators who have met for months with lobbyists, serving corporate interests rather than the common good. 

“The people who have kept this country going during a pandemic are coming to the nation’s capital to insist that we can’t go on without an investment in them,” said Bishop William J. Barber II, who is a PPC:NCMR co-chair, along with Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. “Congress must pass voting rights protections and the Build Back Better plan before the end of the year to help the country heal from the pandemics of systemic racism, poverty, voter suppression and COVID-19 that are wreaking havoc on our daily lives, our democracy and our nation’s social and moral infrastructure. So we are telling Congress and President Biden to get it done in ‘21!”

The program will be livestreamed here. Union Square is located on the reflecting pool side of the U.S. Capitol, on 3rd Street SW between Madison and Jefferson.

“Poor and low-income people are saying that we can no longer wait for voting rights, living wages, healthcare, immigration reform and so much more and that we also must take life-saving action to compel Congress and the White House to defend our democracy and lift from the bottom so everyone rises,” Rev. Theoharis said. 

Monday’s rally is the last DC program of 2021 for PPC:NCMR, which will hold a news conference on Jan. 10, 2022, at the National Press Club to announce details of a Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington that will be held June 18, 2022.

Speakers for Dec. 13  will include impacted people from West Virginia and Arizona. Senators from those states, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, remain the biggest obstacles to passing legislation that protects the vote and helps the 140 million poor and low-income people in this country. Impacted people from New York, Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Georgia also will speak, along with economists and civil rights attorneys.

In addition, buses will bring participants from these states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and West Virginia.

The Moral Monday begins when a motorcade gathers at 7:30 a.m. ET at Sen. Manchin’s office at 261 Aikens Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and heads to DC to demand a meeting with their senator and join the rally. Participants will decorate their cars and hold a short rally. This program also will be livestreamed here.

Partners include SEIU/Fight for $15, Black Voters Matter, Common Defense, Presbyterian Church (USA), Unitarian Universalist Association, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, American Friends Service Committee, Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, Hindus for Human Rights, the National Council of Jewish Women, Pax Christi USA, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, United for Peace & Justice, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice, Indivisible, Order of Lutheran Franciscans, Dayenu, Institute for Policy Studies, Forward Justice Action Fund, Sunrise Movement, League of Women Voters, DC Vote, Coalition for the People’s Agenda, the Union for Reform Judaism the Deaconess Community ELCA, Global Women’s Strike and Women of Color Global Women’s Strike.

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