[Before he died, Martin Luther King, Jr. joined a campaign to
unify working people of all races. Today, nothing could be more
powerful.] [[link removed]]

LEARNING FROM KING’S LAST CAMPAIGN  
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Jessicah Pierre
January 14, 2020
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_ Before he died, Martin Luther King, Jr. joined a campaign to unify
working people of all races. Today, nothing could be more powerful. _

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As we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., it’s natural
to remember his courageous advocacy for racial equity. But before he
was assassinated, King had also begun to broaden his efforts to unify
the around economic justice.

That’s worth remembering today.

In December 1967, King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
and other conveners laid out their vision for the first Poor
People’s Campaign. Seeing how poverty cut across race and geography,
these leaders built the campaign into a multiracial effort including
African Americans, white Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic
Americans, and Native Americans aimed at alleviating poverty for all.

The goal was to lead a massive protest in Washington D.C. demanding
that Congress prioritize a massive anti-poverty package that included,
among other things, a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed
annual income, and more low-income housing. And they wanted to pay for
it by ending the Vietnam War.

“We believe the highest patriotism demands the ending of the
war,” King said
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“and the opening of a bloodless war to final victory over racism and
poverty.” Assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968 while organizing
Black sanitation workers, King never made it to the Poor People’s
March, but thousands did protest in Washington to honor King’s
memory and to pursue his vision.

That vision remains to be realized. Today, 140 million Americans
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over 40 percent of us — remain poor or low-income. As in King’s
day, Black and brown Americans are especially impacted, but so are
millions of poor whites.

Our country may be polarized by party. But the truth is, we have more
in common to fight for than what divides us.

A December survey by the Center for American Progress
[[link removed]] (CAP) found that 52 percent of American voters
across party lines reported experiencing a serious economic problem in
the past year. This tracks with other research, including the Federal
Reserve Board’s finding that 40 percent of Americans
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have the money to cover a $400 emergency.

The same CAP survey shows that strong majorities — including 9 in 10
Democrats, 7 in 10 independents, and 6 in 10 Republicans — support
government action to “reduce poverty by ensuring that all families
have access to basic living standards like health care, food, and
housing if their wages are too low or they can’t make ends meet.”

Even at a time of stark partisan polarization, a majority of Americans
support policies like raising the minimum wage — while opposing
things like the Trump administration’s draconian cuts
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federal nutrition assistance programs.

King and the Poor People’s Campaign promoted a vision of unity. But
it wasn’t a unity that avoided conflict — it was one where poor
and low-income overcame their divisions to fight for economic justice
together.

To revive that vision, a new Poor People’s Campaign
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interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological
devastation, and militarism — and what they’re calling “the
distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.” Over the past
two years, this campaign has organized communities from all over the
country to build lasting power for poor and impacted people.

“Poor and low-wealth people are seeing the need to galvanize
themselves around an agenda, not a party, not a person, but an
agenda,” said Reverend William Barber
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one of the new campaign’s leaders. “What happens if a movement is
able to help people see how they’re being played against each other?
You could reset the entire political calculus.”

As we head deeper into a divisive election season — and as we
remember Dr. King — it’s worth remembering that our real enemy is
injustice, not each other.

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