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
  • omnibus

Poor Peoples’ March
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
22 Jun 2022
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


  • Black Agenda Radio June 24, 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio June 24, 2022
    24 Jun 2022
    Leftist formation wins Colombian presidential election, the effort to end involuntary servitude in U.S. prisons, the impeachment of a Black legislator in Brazil, and the nature of fascism and need…
  • Historical Pact Victory in Colombian Election
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Historical Pact Victory in Colombian Election
    24 Jun 2022
    Ajamu Baraka is National Organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace. He joins us to discuss the recent election results in Colombia where Gustavo Petro, became the new president, and Francia Marquez,…
  • Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
    24 Jun 2022
    Savannah Eldrige is the founder of Coaliton to Abolish Slavery in Texas, an organization devoted to ending involuntary servitude in that state. She is also the founder of Be Frank 4 Justice which…
  • Impeachment of Renato Freitas in Brazil
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Impeachment of Renato Freitas in Brazil
    24 Jun 2022
    Renato Freitas is a Black City Councillor in Curitiba, Brazil. He and others joined in national protests over the killing of Congolese immigrant Mugenyi Kabagambe, who was beaten to death after…
  • Fascism and Fake Resistance
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Fascism and Fake Resistance
    24 Jun 2022
    In 2018 the late Glen Ford wrote about the election of Jair Bolsonaro to the Brazilian presidency, and the nature of fascism in Brazil, the U.S. and around the world. Margaret Kimberley reads…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us