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


  • Syria and the S-300s: Re-Centering the People in the Global Struggles for Power
    Ajamu Baraka , BAR editor and columnist
    Syria and the S-300s: Re-Centering the People in the Global Struggles for Power
    03 Oct 2018
    Protecting Russian interests in Syria and the Mid-East was and is the driving force for Russian military and diplomatic activity, nothing else!
  • Freedom Rider: The Kavanaugh Farce
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The Kavanaugh Farce
    03 Oct 2018
    Now that it’s too late to prevent a total rightwing takeover of the Supreme Court, the Democrats pretend to be the party of opposition.
  • Historic Precedent or Footnote? Laura Wells Debates Barbara Lee
    Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
    Historic Precedent or Footnote? Laura Wells Debates Barbara Lee
    03 Oct 2018
    Barbara Lee has done what no other Democratic congressional candidate has ever done—agreed to a one-on-one debate with a Green.
  • Theory 101: Class Struggle in the Age of US Imperial Decline
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Theory 101: Class Struggle in the Age of US Imperial Decline
    03 Oct 2018
    The focus on separate “identities” has led to numerous academic theories and non-profit career opportunities but no real power for oppressed and working-class people.
  • BAR Book Forum: Kehinde Andrews’ “Back to Black”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Kehinde Andrews’ “Back to Black”
    03 Oct 2018
    This book shows that the liberal road to reform was a dead end; it is time to commit to revolution.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us