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

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


  • Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba
    Orinoco Tribune
    Colombia’s Iconic Political Leader Piedad Córdoba Passes Away
    24 Jan 2024
    Piedad Córdoba, Black Colombian leftist senator for the Historical Pact, fearless leader, and defender of human rights, passed away on January 20, 2023. Her relentless pursuit of peace…
  • The Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas issued a 16-page document on Sunday, entitled ‘Our Narrative … Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’
    Palestine Chronicle Staff
    Hamas Document Reveals: Why We Carried Out Al-Aqsa Flood Operation
    24 Jan 2024
    The Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas issued a 16-page document on Sunday, entitled ‘Our Narrative … Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’. The document addresses many critical questions about the context,…
  • Yeminis protesting the US bombing of their country
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Washington and London Make Mockery of International Law
    24 Jan 2024
    As the White House and 10 Downing Street deny genocide in Gaza, both imperialist states bomb Yemen, the most impoverished country in the West Asia region.
  • Protest against Israeli genocide on Palestine
    Black Alliance For Peace
    International Coalition Applauds South Africa; Denounces Countries Supporting Israel’s Crimes
    24 Jan 2024
    The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine renews its call for support of South Africa's charge of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice. 
  • Vladimir Lenin
    Abiodun Olamosu
    Learning from Lenin Today
    24 Jan 2024
    One hundred years since Lenin’s death, Nigerian socialist Abiodun Olamosu describes the revolutionary's influence on his own political development. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us