John,

On March 25, 1965, in the midst of the civil rights movement and just days after the Selma to Montgomery marches, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech entitled, “Our God is Marching On!”[1] In it, Dr. King spoke to the need for American society to address poverty, hunger, and economic revitalization:

"Let us march on poverty until no American parent has to skip a meal so that their children may eat. March on poverty until no starved man walks the streets of our cities and towns in search of jobs that do not exist. Let us march on poverty until wrinkled stomachs in Mississippi are filled, and the idle industries of Appalachia are realized and revitalized, and broken lives in sweltering ghettos are mended and remolded."

Nearly 60 years later, we continue the struggle to abolish poverty and uplift marginalized communities. And, in many ways, we already have the necessary tools at our disposal.

In 2021, as part of the American Rescue Plan, Congress passed a one-year expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC), which increased it to $3,000 - $3,600 per child and made the full amount available to all children, regardless of their family’s income. That investment lifted millions out of poverty, cutting childhood poverty virtually in half.

When Congress failed to renew the expanded CTC in 2022, approximately 19 million children with the lowest family incomes were negatively impacted―today, more than 1 in 4 children is no longer receiving the full tax credit or receiving nothing at all.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:[2]

“The estimated 19 million children under 17 who do not receive the full credit are disproportionately Black, Latino, and American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN)…. Roughly 45 percent of Black children, 39 percent of Latino children, 38 percent of AIAN children, 17 percent of white children, and 16 percent of Asian children currently cannot receive the full credit because their families’ incomes are too low.”

Today, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, write to your members of Congress and demand they renew the expanded Child Tax Credit to ensure children of families with the lowest incomes receive the full CTC.

Childhood poverty is not an inevitability; it is a policy choice―one that Congress must address this year.

Thank you for taking action today,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

[1] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/our-god-marching
[2] https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/year-end-tax-policy-priority-expand-the-child-tax-credit-for-the-19-million