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2018 Poor People’s March on Washington

Poor People to March on Washington, D.C. for 50th Anniversary of MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign and Resurrection City!
On June 2nd, poor families from across the country will gather in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, the poorest District in Pennsylvania, for the Poor People’s March on Washington, D.C.
This march will mark the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign and Resurrection City erected in 1968 on the National Mall. The march will begin on June 2nd from the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia and end on June 12th at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. where we will be joined by the Homeless Marathon.
As put by PPEHRC member, Galen Tyler: “We are this new and unsettling force that King spoke of in 1968.” Sign up to join us for the Poor People’s March and donate $10 today to support this effort.

Many thanks to the churches that graciously opened their doors to us along the road:
Oxford Presbyterian Church and SILO (Serving Inspiring Loving Others) (Oxford, PA)
Grace Episcopal Church (Darlington, MD)
Schedule of Events in D.C., June 9-12 at Dupont Circle
Saturday, June 9th
Arrive in Washington, D.C. and set up Resurrection City
1pm: Opening Ceremony
2pm: Koshari/Refuge Beat Poets Collective
3pm: No Dead Monsters
4pm: I Against Eye/XK Scenario
5pm: Ruin by Design
6pm: Capital Offender
7pm: Torino Death Ride
8pm: Infinite Skillz
9pm: Room Full of Strangers
10pm: Krown
Sunday, June 10th
10am: Interfaith spiritual gathering
2pm: Refuge Beat Poets Collective
3pm: Room Full of Strangers
4pm: Rise Defy
5pm: Never Submit
6pm: Babies with Rabies
7pm: The Screws
8pm: El Presidente
9pm: Rebel Diaz
Monday, June 11th
Workshops/actions
9am: Rally at HUD
5pm: Opening ceremony/speakers
6pm: Meatbot
7pm: Rebel Diaz
8pm: TBA
Tuesday, June 12th
Workshops/actions
10am: Rally at Chamber of Commerce
12pm: Homeless Marathon all day, starting at noon
5pm: Opening ceremony/speakers
6pm: The Chariots
7pm: Good Hood
8pm: The Originators
9pm: Closing Ceremony
Sign up to join us for the Poor People’s March and of you and/or your organization are interested in endorsing the event, please complete this form.
Current endorsements:
Abbas Children of NC
Ajamu Baraka
Alliance
Black Alliance for Peace
Black Lives Matter Philadelphia
Center for Prophetic Imagination
CHAM Deliverance Ministry
Cindy Sheehan, Peace and Social Justice Activist
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
Denver PPEHRC
Eleanor Goldfield
Fight Toxic Prisons
Florida Green Party
Florida PPEHRC
Florida Homelessness Action Coalition
Florida Indigenous Rights Environmental Equality
Greater Boston Chapter of the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts
Green Party of Texas
Dr. George Ciccariello-Maher, scholar-activist and author
Hearts for God Worship Center
Hopetown of Lewisburg, TN
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Liberty Resources
Liberty Tree
Mark Van Stenwyk (Author)
Maryland PPEHRC
Massachusetts PPEHRC
Minnesota PPEHRC
Miriam’s Kitchen (Washington, D.C.)
Movement for a People’s Party (MPP)
National Coalition for the Homeless
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
New Jerusalem Laura
New York City Green Party
Nick Brana (Movement for a People’s Party)
Pastor Adan Mairena, West Kensington Ministry
Pennsylvania Green Party
People for Fairness Coalition
Philadelphia Green Party
Philadelphia Socialists
Philadelphia Tenants Union
Philadelphia Young Patriots Organization
Pinellas County Green Party
Poor Magazine
Popular Resistance
Punk for the Homeless (UK)
Refuge Ministries in Greater Seattle (WA)
Refuge Ministries of Maryland
Refuge Ministries of New Orleans
Refuge Ministries Orphanage Sierra Leone
Refuge Ministries Tampa Bay
Reverend Pinkney
Reverend Robin Harris
Reverend David Reppert
Reverend Barbara Wright
Revolutionary Road Radio Show
Revolutionary Caucus Tampa Bay
Rivera Sun (Author)
Rosa Clemente
Rose Brewer
Sister Margaret McKenna
St. Pete for Peace
Veterans for Peace, Philadelphia
Womanist Working Collective
Youth Haven Ministries
Confirmed artists:
Babies with Rabies
Capital Offender
Dark Star Coven
El Presidente
Goodhood
I Against Eye
Infinite Skillz
John Alexander
Koshari
Krown
Mark Webber (actor)
Matt Sedillo
Meatbot
Mic Crenshaw
Never Submit
No Dead Monsters
Pedro El Poeta
Po Poets Project/Poetas Pobres (Poor Magazine): Poets in poverty using the word to heal, educate and relate – how to survive, thrive and stay alive in this stolen indigenous territory the colonizers call Amerikkka.
Rebel Diaz
Refuge Beat Poets Collective
Rise Defy
Room Full of Strangers
Ruin by Design
The Chariots
The Originators
The Screws
Torino Death Ride
XK Scenario
Kensington is home to the highest death rate of ANY major U.S. city. In 2016, 64,000 Americans died from opioids – more than in the entire Vietnam War (55,000). In Philadelphia, there were 1,200 overdose deaths last year due to mostly opioids. It has quadrupled the murder rate.
Kensington is also home to the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU). The KWRU was created as a direct response to the cuts in public assistance at the same time that no jobs were being created for welfare recipients. Cheri Honkala went on to become the first welfare recipient to testify before Congress about the impact of the welfare cuts (see Myth of the Welfare Queen). At the time, politicians were slamming the poor by creating images of welfare queens and deadbeat dads instead of telling the real story which was one of poor single mothers and unemployed fathers, entering the prison system in record numbers to become a part of the prison industrial complex. This led KWRU to look for help and models of organizing outside of their own neighborhood and soon they linked with the poor in both urban and rural areas around the country that were facing the same plight, forming the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.
From a neighborhood that once was filled with factories, offering a blue-collar life of making hats and cigars, now is ground zero in a drug war, where the number one source of income is drugs and the second welfare, and where mothers hope daily that their sons come home alive. It is these very real daily lives in a war zone that have given rise to the 2018 Poor People’s March on Washington, D.C.
Yes, we the poor will march and speak for ourselves: the homeless, residents of Puerto Rico robbed of our land and culture, people in recovery, the disability community, the ‘welfare queens,’ the ‘deadbeat dads,’ homeless veterans, the hustlers, young and old, immigrants, the criminals, the ‘undeserving’ poor, black, white and Brown. We will march for our lives and when we arrive we will construct Resurrection city and Reclaim our future for generations to come.