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


  • Everywhere in the Diaspora, Blacks are Treated as “the Enemy”
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Everywhere in the Diaspora, Blacks are Treated as “the Enemy”
    02 Sep 2019
    “It’s always been important for us to be seen as enemies of whatever is considered decent, right or correct” by the white patriarchy,” said Cheryl Rodriguez, co-editor of “Trans-Atlantic Feminism:
  • Muslims Always Blamed in White Men’s Mass Shootings
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Muslims Always Blamed in White Men’s Mass Shootings
    02 Sep 2019
    Even when white men are the perpetrators, Muslims are always somehow brought into the discussion, said Dr Maha Hilal, co-director of the Justice for Muslims Collective and aut
  • Is Warren Talented Enough to Betray the People as Masterfully as Obama?
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Is Warren Talented Enough to Betray the People as Masterfully as Obama?
    29 Aug 2019
    Elizabeth Warren is seen as a counter Bernie Sanders, but she will melt (like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris) if she stops raising Democrats’ expectations to bust corporate power.
  • Jeffery Epstein, Jay-Z, and the Miserable World Created by the Billionaire Ruling Class
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Jeffery Epstein, Jay-Z, and the Miserable World Created by the Billionaire Ruling Class
    28 Aug 2019
    Epstein and Jay-Z are representatives of the class responsible for much of the misery on this planet.
  • Black Alliance for Peace Demands All Elected Officials Stand Against Militarism
    Black Alliance For Peace
    Black Alliance for Peace Demands All Elected Officials Stand Against Militarism
    28 Aug 2019
    Politicians must not be allowed to escape accountability for US militarism, both on foreign shores and US streets.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us