Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Poor Peoples’ March
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
22 Jun 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Poor Peoples’ March
Rev. Ralph Abernathy leads the Poor People's March from Resurrection City to the grounds of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, June 24, 1968.

                                                                                                                   Poor Peoples’ March

                                                                                                “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”  

                                                                                                                            —Aristotle

Rainbow drum majors

arrived down from broken

hearted Buffalo—up from

Uvalde—Down south; Out

south; Up south. Trekkers,

drivers, flyers, bus riders arrived.

Essential Workers—a few months

ago; for a minute—arrived from their

robotic jobs…Over-worked/underpaid.

Children from COVID-canceled families

Arrived. Food workers on blistered, swollen

feet and un-operated on knees arrived.

Toilers under poverty’s knee and low-wealth’s

swastika-tatted arm arrived.

Grassroots, salt of the earth, everyday people

arrived.

Hurt first/hurt worst Black, Brown, Indigenous

impacted people arrived.

Inflation-riddled poverty scholars from food

apartheid bantustans arrived.

Labor’s soldiers, siloed sea to shiny sea, arrived.

Standing shoulder to shoulder Juneteenth

on un-ceded Anacostan Ancestral land, galvanizing,

mobilizing—flashing glimpses of 30s/60s greatness

from Arab Spring, Occupy, George Floyd Summer,

Strike-tober reflections…

Carving cursive initials in granite of a 100 year-old

Healthcare for ALL fight…

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.

 

Poor People's Campaign
Poor People's March

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Resurrection City: The Dream…The Accomplishments, Jesse Jackson, 1968
18 February 2026
“The Poor People’s Campaign is the greatest single challenge ever unleashed upon our colonial system.”
The Poor People's Campaign and the Moral Dilemma of Liberalism
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
The Poor People's Campaign and the Moral Dilemma of Liberalism
04 May 2022
The demands for justice at home and abroad must not be sacrificed on the altar of what is called pragmatism.

More Stories


  • The Injustice of This Moment Is Not an "Aberration"
    Michelle Alexander
    The Injustice of This Moment Is Not an "Aberration"
    22 Jan 2020
    Yes, Trump is an inveterate liar, but American politicians have always told lies about the Black and brown people they demonize and mass-imprison.
  • Venezuela: A Successful Year of Resistance
    Francisco Dominguez
    Venezuela: A Successful Year of Resistance
    22 Jan 2020
    Washington’s strategy throughout 2019 was aimed at bringing about chaos and mayhem sufficient to justify US military intervention. 
  • In Anti-Communist Fervor, FBI Built a 500-Page File on Coretta Scott King
    Aaron J. Leonard
    In Anti-Communist Fervor, FBI Built a 500-Page File on Coretta Scott King
    22 Jan 2020
    Scott King was spied on constantly by the FBI – surveillance that was authorized by the Kings’ “friends,” the Kennedy brothers.
  • Huey P. Newton and Martin Luther King Jr.: Revolutionary Love and Unity
    Archishman Raju
    Huey P. Newton and Martin Luther King Jr.: Revolutionary Love and Unity
    22 Jan 2020
    Both Newton and King sought to create a united front for peace and socialism.
  • Want Out of Jail? First You Have to Take a Fast Food Job
    Anna Wolfe and Michelle Liu
    Want Out of Jail? First You Have to Take a Fast Food Job
    22 Jan 2020
    The convict labor system was once notorious in Mississippi – and it still is, under the guise of debt restitution.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us