MEMPHIS, TN — On Monday, May 23 at 4:30 p.m., the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will have a march and rally in Memphis to elevate the interlocking injustices plaguing the Mid-South.
A newly convened coalition serving as the Memphis and Midsouth Mobilization Campaign has been launched to increase regional participation of individuals and groups from Memphis, Middle Tennessee and the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta into the broader work of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
This group includes persons from the wider area and is diverse in its outreach and demographics. The goal is to have a rally in Memphis, on May 23, 2022 and to use that rally as a major mobilizing event toward the Mass Poor People’s Low Wage-Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the POLLS, June 18, 2022 and beyond, with hundreds being organized from Memphis and the mid-south to travel to Washington, DC.
Mr. Justin J. Pearson, founder of Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) and Rev. Gordon Myers will serve as co-leaders of this Mobilization Campaign. The Co-Leaders will coordinate their work with Rev. Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson, Executive Director of the Mass Poor People’s Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the POLLS and with National Field Team Leaders, Briana Kemp and Danyelle Holmes.
This core group will work to accomplish three key tasks: (1) Convene the area’s equity and justice leaders, (2) Engage the leaders and directly impacted persons, around their particular issues and connection to the broader work of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and (3) Increase participation and activation in the Poor People’s Campaign: National Call for Moral Revival by participation in large numbers in the May and June’s gatherings.
The expected outcome is a resurrection and continuation of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King interrupted by his assassination at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968 and providing a platform allowing Memphis to reclaim its historic role as a national moral leader in civil rights, labor and justice efforts.
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, is not only pushing to end systematic racism, systematic poverty and a war-based economy, but ecological devastation and lack of access to health care as well as the false moral narrative of religious nationalism. The new Poor People’s Campaign co-chaired by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis conducts coordinating efforts in 40+ states and has over 200 organizational partners, labor unions and religious organizations who have come together around a Jubilee platform on the road to Washington, DC on June 18th :
• Not a moment, but a Movement
• Not just for a day of action but for a generationally transformative declaration of an ongoing, committed moral movement.
• Not an Insurrection, but a Resurrection
• Shifting the political narrative;
• Building the power of the people;
• Making real policies to fully address poverty and low wealth from the bottom up.
More information can be found on Facebook at: Poor People’s Campaign: Mid-South Mobilization
A promotional video describing Mass Poor People’s Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the POLLS June 18, 2022 can be found here: VIDEO
For more information about the Poor People’s Campaign can be found at: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org
Forward Together, Not One Step Back! Justin J. Pearson and Rev. Gordon Myers, Co-Lead and Strategic Advisors | Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival – Mid South Mobilization
