The following is a gently edited letter from Rev. Dr. William J. Barber concerning building the all-important mobilization that is underway to get out the vote and win the swing vote over---that is, the poor and low-income people across this country---to carrying an agenda that changes "the economic and political architecture of this country" and " addresses the needs of poor and low-wage people."
Please read the letter below and do what is being asked, and please support the campaign by watching this video and chipping in to help.
Please read the letter below and do what is being asked, and please support the campaign by watching this video and chipping in to help.
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and co-author Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove discuss
in Chicago, IL, on August 21, 2024.
Dear Movement Family,
Last week my friend Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and I traveled to Chicago to speak with attendees at the Democratic National Convention.
We hosted a screening of the film Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy, where we pushed back on the notion that Christianity calls on us to be anti-gay, against people who may have had an abortion, against immigrants, and against the poor.
We highlighted the truth: that what the Scriptures actually say is that God loves all people. Jesus said the Gospel is about good news to the poor, healing to the brokenhearted, welcoming all people, caring for the least of these: the immigrants, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned.
We also held a panel discussing the topic of our new book: White Poverty: How Exposing Myths about Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy.
At the panel, we talked about how we need to acknowledge the full breadth of the problem of poverty in America in order to mobilize the swing vote of poor and low-income people so that we can reshape the economic and political architecture of this country.
My longtime friend, civil rights leader and Sierra Club president Ben Jealous, highlighted the need to talk to all people.
“You will hear liberals say again and again, people of color and low-income communities. Well in a nation where the white poor are invisible, what people hear is low income people of color communities,” he warned.
Instead, he wisely counseled that what we need to start doing is including poor white people in our campaigns.
“You [should] say people of color and low-income white communities. You know, somebody might say to you this, they might say hey, but how many poor white folks are there?” he said. “Well, twice as many as there are poor Black folks! We’ve got 8 million and change poor Black folks in America, you’ve got 16 million and change poor white folks in America.”
Pamela Garrison of the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign spoke about the struggles of poor white folks and others in the state.
“My whole state, when the coal mines went down, what they replaced it with was tourism. What tourism is, is low-wage jobs. It’s restaurants, it’s stores, it’s gas stations. That’s what we got. That’s what we’re living on,” she said.
Latosha Brown, the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, noted with sadness that her cousin recently passed as a consequence of poverty.
“She went to the hospital for a UTI. They sent her back home because they didn’t bother – because she was poor – they didn’t bother to check her labs,” she noted.
Her cousin had sepsis, when an infection causes your immune system to have a harmful reaction. By the time they called her back to the hospital, it was far too late.
These critical stories highlighted the need to organize America’s most potent swing vote: poor and low-income people across this country.
In every state these voters make up many times the margin of victory in the previous presidential elections. By mobilizing this sleeping giant, we can change the economic and political architecture of this country.
We must push all candidates of every party to embrace a moral agenda that abolishes poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in this country and addresses the needs of poor and low-wage people.
JOIN THE MOBILIZATION
Contact your state Poor People’s Campaign leaders to join our mass mobilization effort.
Click here to visit Vote.org to check your registration, register to vote, request an absentee ballot, check what’s on your ballot, and get election reminders to make sure you’re where you need to be on election day.
You can also help spread the word among your friends, family, and social networks.
Send this email to people you know
Share the Vote.org link on social media
Forward together, not one step back!
Bishop William J. Barber, II, DMin
National Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
President & Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach
Founding Director, Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School
Repairers of the Breach
P.O. Box 1638
Goldsboro, NC 27533
United States
Bishop William J. Barber, II, DMin
National Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
President & Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach
Founding Director, Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School
Repairers of the Breach
P.O. Box 1638
Goldsboro, NC 27533
United States