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


  • Modern Day Reconstruction and Tennessee's Expulsion of Black Lawmakers
    Jon Jeter
    Modern Day Reconstruction and Tennessee's Expulsion of Black Lawmakers
    19 Apr 2023
    The temporary expulsion of two Black Tennessee legislators was a reminder of why even a tiny semblance of Black political independence is feared and hated. The expressions of support from …
  • Apologies Not Accepted - Or I Love It When The Universe Proves Me Right
    Jacqueline Luqman
    Apologies Not Accepted - Or I Love It When The Universe Proves Me Right
    19 Apr 2023
    Jacqueline Luqman was vilified for pointing out a simple fact. Black people will not make common cause with racists and bigots. Racists do not get a pass because they call themselves anti-war.
  • Piura No Longer a Fujimori Stronghold
    Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Piura No Longer a Fujimori Stronghold
    19 Apr 2023
    Peru is facing popular struggle in the wake of a coup which ousted President Castillo. It must also confront a legacy of political corruption.
  • Haiti, Hunger, and US Prison Imperialism
    James Patrick Jordan
    Haiti, Hunger, and US Prison Imperialism
    19 Apr 2023
    Imposing coups, forcing fake elections, denying asylum claims, and kidnapping a president aren't enough subjugation for the US to carry out against Haiti. US built prisons are a death trap for…
  • France in 2023
    Philippe Gendrault
    France in 2023
    19 Apr 2023
    France raised the pension age in the name of a "reform" that is nothing more than the EU sanctions regime at work. French workers have been in a continued state of protest in response.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us