Poor People’s March – 6/18/22
Join the Poor People’s Campaign on June 18!
For years UCC members and congregations have been participating in Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. This year the work continues with even greater urgency.
As organizers have declared, “We assemble and march on June 18, 2022 because any nation that ignores nearly half of its citizens is in a moral, economic and political crisis. There were 140 million people who were poor or one emergency away from economic ruin before the pandemic. Since March 2020, hundreds of thousands of people have died, millions are on the edge of hunger and eviction, and still without health care or living wages.”
On June 18, 2022, hundreds of thousands of poor and low-wealth people will join with moral allies both in-person in Washington, DC, and online, in a declaration that the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, denial of health care, militarism and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism are killing all of us – and we can’t, we won’t, we refuse to be silent anymore!
As we have done in past years, we hope to see thousands of UCC advocates joining the mobilization either in-person or online. First Congregational UCC in Washington, DC [945 G Street, NW] will provide a space of hospitality and networking for UCC members attending in person beginning at 7:30 AM Saturday, June 18. We will join in a commissioning prayer and then march together behind a UCC banner to the rally site. The rally begins at 10 AM at 3rd and Pennsylvania Ave NW.
The evening before the mobilization, Friday, June 17 at 5 PM, the campaign will be organizing a communal dinner for the community at Freedom Plaza. The gathering: “Everybody In, Nobody Out” will provide meals for mobilization participants and others in the community, as well as a time to share in fellowship. After dinner, participants will head to the Lincoln Memorial for a 7:30 PM memorial service remembering those who have died from COVID, systemic poverty and racism.
Please note: COVID-19 safety protocols will be in place. Participants are asked to wear masks and practice social distancing. Please do not attend if you are not feeling unwell or exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.
Stay tuned for more detail as they unfold! Please let us know if you plan to participate, either in person or online on June, 18 by contacting Sandy Sorensen, or by making sure to register as “United Church of Christ.”
Below are resources and links you can use to encourage UCC members and congregations in your community to engage on June 18:
Video: June 18th promo
Video: Pain and Poverty in America
Video: It’s Time For a Meeting
Digital Toolkit
Forward together! Not one step back!