“Somebody’s hurting my brother, and it’s gone on far too long”

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and the federal holiday Monday, members of the Houston County NAACP and the Georgia Poor People’s Campaign among other groups marched from Warner Robins City Hall to The Winning Church on Walnut Street, following the march with a prayer breakfast.

Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick, the city’s first woman and Black person to be elected to the office, said it’s important for us to remember King’s social contributions and ideas.

“His courage and boldness to not accept the status quo and actually revolutionize change for people that look like me is remarkable,” Patrick said.

King’s work with the Poor People’s Campaign and the fight for economic justice in the 1960s is still quite relevant in today’s society — according to JaMelle Hill, Tri-Chair with the Georgia Poor People’s Campaign and Chairman of Membership with the NAACP.

“The Poor People’s Campaign sought to address poverty primarily through income and housing, and the campaign would help the poor by putting a face on their needs,” she said.

The Georgia Poor People’s Campaign has more events in the works, including “a mass poor people, low-wage workers assembly and moral march on Washington and to the polls” coming up on June 18, Hill said.

“We are putting a face on poverty,” she said. “Under the Economic Bill of Rights, the Poor People’s Campaign asks for the federal government to prioritize helping the poor with a $30 billion anti-poverty package, that included among other demands: a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure and more low-income housing.

“Today, what we have submitted to them is called The Third Reconstruction. We’ve done the work; we have the numbers.”

Email georgia@poorpeoplescampaign.org or visit https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/committee/georgia/ to learn about how you can be involved with the Poor People’s Campaign.

HHJ News