Dear John,

One hundred and fifty years ago today, the US Congress ratified the 15th Amendment, guaranteeing that no one’s vote will be "denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." And today, the Poor People’s Campaign will join with West Virginians to demand a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin. Streaming online at 1pm ET at poorpeoplescampaign.org/livestream

Along with low-wage workers from Schumer’s home state of New York, the West Virginia speakers will release a letter to Sen. Schumer to demand that he call the question on the For the People Act, restoration of the Voting Rights Act and a Build Back Better plan that includes a permanent child tax credit, family leave and a living wage.

An analysis last year by the Institute for Policy Studies of one BBB plan showed that extension of the expanded child tax credit would benefit 346,000 children in West Virginia and lift 23,000 children above the official poverty line. You can read the Kairos Center's new quick fact sheet on a Moral Budget vs. a War Budget here.

In the spirit of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who understood the connection between voting rights and economic justice, we assert that the votes on the For the People Act and Build Back Better cannot be separated.

Congress ratified the 15th Amendment on Feb. 3, 1870, but states used poll taxes, literacy tests and other ways to block its implementation and abridge the right to vote. Now a wave of voter suppression laws continues to rolls across the country making it more difficult to vote early or vote by mail, implementing restrictive voter ID requirements, or even the infamous Georgia law making it illegal to hand out water or snacks to people waiting to vote.

Forward together, not one step back!

Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis

Co-Chairs, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival