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


  • COP27 to be Held in Egypt amid Global Challenges
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    COP27 to be Held in Egypt amid Global Challenges
    21 Sep 2022
    African nations and other developing regions are facing greater economic turmoil as extreme weather events, imperialist war and capitalist exploitation continue to damage the planet. The next United…
  • Life Expectancy: The US and Cuba in the Time of Covid
    Don Fitz
    Life Expectancy: The US and Cuba in the Time of Covid
    21 Sep 2022
    The profitmaking health care system in the U.S. does not correlate with good outcomes. Socialist Cuba struggles under U.S. sanctions, yet it now outperforms the U.S. in life expectancy.
  • Hard Stop: On Seeking Justice for Chris Kaba
    Michael Richmond, Alex Charnley
    Hard Stop: On Seeking Justice for Chris Kaba
    21 Sep 2022
    The U.S. isn't the only country where police shootings of Black people are common. Chris Kaba is the latest victim of what UK police call a "hard stop."
  • Oil Palm Plantations and Water Grabbing: Ivory Coast and Gabon
    World Rainforest Movement
    Oil Palm Plantations and Water Grabbing: Ivory Coast and Gabon
    21 Sep 2022
    Industrial palm oil production in West and Central Africa is mainly controlled by five multinational corporations and could continue expansion. Plantations take up large tracts of land. Land and…
  • Caribbean Activists Turn Up the Volume for Reparations
    The Voice
    Caribbean Activists Turn Up the Volume for Reparations
    21 Sep 2022
    The death of the queen is a reminder of the debt that Britain owes to Caribbean nations. Reparations are owed for slavery.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us