Putting the poor back into the political storyline

In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. — like the United States — was at a crossroads. The civil rights movements of which he was a leader had made significant gains, including the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

But those victories, King realized, had not ended suffering. In America’s urban centers and its rural expanse, poverty and discrimination persisted. The military conflict in Vietnam continued with no end in sight. America, according to King, needed a “radical revolution of values” to right those and other wrongs. The original Poor People’s Campaign was born.

Half a century after King’s vision was brought to life and his tragic assassination, we again find ourselves at a crossroads with respect to racism, economic exploitation, militarism and environmental devastation. The issues confronting poor Americans 50 years ago remain acute problems that leave families living in fear in 2018. The dimensions of those problems have changed somewhat. But we believe the solutions still lie within us.

Thousands have stepped up over the last five weeks to pick up King’s mantle and show our leaders that they can no longer ignore the needs of the poor in this country. As members of the Missouri statewide coordinating committee for the revived Poor People’s Campaign, we were among the 88 arrested for civil disobedience in Jefferson City on May 14. During the ensuing five weeks of our campaign, another 150 people were arrested in the state capital for nonviolent resistance.

Fast food and other low-wage workers, rural and urban, black, brown and white, LGBTQ and straight, veterans of our military, union workers, young and old, clergy and other allies have come together to create a new moral narrative based on right and wrong, rather than left or right.

Why put our bodies on the line? Because sitting beside me on that hot afternoon were hardworking mothers and fathers who face awful choices between feeding their children, buying needed medication or simply keeping the heat on in the winter and the lights on. They include those who have worked their entire lives and yet continue to be the forgotten — or worse still, demonized as lazy or criminals by heartless and greedy politicians. They are people of great dignity and courage who work hard and still make poverty wages in the wealthiest country on Earth.

They’ve watched as a majority in our state legislature has attacked the rights of workers (including the insidious lie that is the “right-to-work” Proposition A), and instituted legislation to suppress the votes and voices of the elderly, veterans and people of color. As chronicled in this very paper, those same legislators have allowed hundreds of thousands of Missourians to go without any health insurance, kept our cities from raising the deplorably low minimum wage for fast food and other low-wage workers, and sat idly by as Missouri continues to be one of the worst states in the country in regard to racial profiling by our police. Rural hospitals have been forced to close for lack of funding, and our Missouri family farmers continue to be driven out of business by corporate greed.

We could throw our hands up in despair and see no light at the end of a very long tunnel. But both King’s example and our recent work with the Poor People’s Campaign speaks to a different path. We believe our power lies in unification, not division; in compassion, not hate.

This Saturday, the nationwide Poor People’s Campaign will again evoke King’s legacy with a march on Washington, D.C., for a global day of solidarity. As leaders with this group, it has been our honor to walk with the poor on their journey. We will continue to do so until poverty is eradicated and all people in our state and our country are treated with the dignity that is the right of all humanity.

We hope that you will stand with us, wherever you are.

This story was originally published June 19, 2018 at 8:39 PM with the headline "Putting the poor back into the political storyline."