2000 union troops to proclaim that more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state were afraid. Some local slaveowners initially ignored the directive, but granger demanded they comply with the proclamation. Why is it called juneteenth . It derives its name from combining june and 19th. That day that he issued his proclamation. Juneteenth has we are leaving this for live conversation on ending hunger and part of the in the u. S. William barber is joining other activists and advocates for a threeday summit in washington, d. C. Could this monstrous act be a necessary link in the chain of events toward the downfall of the entire system of slavery . He said what i do know is that every attempt to stop us and allow our progress only serves to intensify and embolden our agitation. This is why we this morning will take a hard look at the ugly reality of poverty death by poverty. The fourth leading cause of death, ahead of homicide. Maybe the fact that we are having to face this is, in some strange way, a necessary link in the chain of events that will not stop us, but will intensify and embolden our agitation. Mother jones said you pray for the dead. But you fight like hell for the living. [applause] Martin Luther king was headed to d. C. When he stopped by memphis. The Poor Peoples Campaign was not started by dr. King, it was the welfare rights women. They were all a team. It was not men against women, it was not preacher against advocates. It was a team effort. A year before his death, he spoke at Riverside Church and declared that three people entered trying evils. And that america could not claim some of the things it was claiming around the world until those things were addressed. The next morning, 150 newspapers wrote negative articles. He lost his invitation to the white house. Most of his own denomination talked against him. Many organizations wrote articles against him. He went on during the course of that year and in december, he preached a sermon about the meaning of hope but he started with despair. He started with the despair, talking about the reality of two americas. One america flowing with the open honey where everybody seemed to have everything they needed. The other america was where death and destitution and poverty was the order of the day. He said yet, in this despairing reality, we have to challenge it. We have to have this Poor Peoples Campaign. Systemic racism, say that. Systemic racism. Bishop barber systemic poverty. Systemic poverty. Bishop barber ecological ewa station. Devastation. Ecological devastation. Bishop barber the war on economy. The war on the academy. Bishop barber and the false narrative of religious nationalism. And the false narrative of religious nationalism. Bishop barber injustices that today, we must face. He was calling the people and the women were calling the people, my dear sister from california reminded me we had been waiting 50 years for this reunion. Not to be an organization, not to be a place where you could fight over what color the napkin is going to be and who is going to hold office. But a movement of people. Advocates, religious and all leaders united together. Because my brothers and sisters, there is one thing i want to say to this congress. This is no time for foolishness. If you are here to fight over foolish things, please exit. Because we dont have time. People are dying. If you are here for any other reason, because nobody has to be here. If you are here for any other reason but love and to embrace one another and move as a movement and be faithful over a few things, we love you. But, this aint no time for foolishness. This is only a time to fight for love, fight for justice and fight for truth. Touch your neighbor and say if youre here for that, im with you. If youre here from that, im with you. Bishop barber touch the other and say if you are here for foolishness, please get a ticket back home. And so, dr. King was on his way here and they made their way to memphis. They were almost going to regroup because they had made the declaration we are going to stay in d. C. Until change comes. There were some strategic errors in that that they talked about. But he went to memphis where people were dying. Two garbage workers were dying, simply because they sat inside of a garbage truck during a rainstorm. And lightning hit, causing the truck mechanics to crush them. Thats what got them in memphis. Folk were dying just for trying to get out of the rain. They were already being paid less than living wage. But they were dying because they werent allowed to go inside. And somebody said doc, why are you going to go to memphis . He said they been trying to kill you ever since. And doc said the issue is not what is going to happen to me if i go. But whats going to happen to them if i dont. [applause] bishop barber and if we cant stop and care about poor people in memphis on the way to d. C. , if we cant build from the state up, there is no need to go to d. C. Down. Thats why, in this movement, ive always said, number one, when you get in a movement, you have to stay in it. You cant ba. 1 event movement. You cant get mad because everything doesnt change in one week or because you had one rally. Secondly, you have to build from the state up. This country never changed from d. C. Down, it changed from birmingham up, from selma up, from memphis up. From little rock up. And so, theyve just given me another note. I have to multitask. Not only did this poem say this and Frederick Douglass and mother jones, our constitution says that the whole purpose for this endeavor and even though as one person said, when the frame of constitution was writing, racism was like a cobra underneath the table. And every time they attempted to move away from slavery, they would poison the conversation. But even so, somehow, maybe it was the finger of god, despite what they were trying to write, that said to ensure domestic tranquility. To establish justice, to promote the general welfare, and to provide for the constitution had a rebirth with the 14th amendment, equal protection under the law for all citizens. No. Equal protection under the law for all persons. It doesnt matter if you are a citizen or not. And we must declare that poor people dying at a rate that is the fourth highest cause of death in america is not ensuring domestic tranquility, it is not establishing justice and it is not promoting the general welfare, it is not providing a common defense and it is not equal protection under the law. And america, since you said that is what you are going to be about, we will make you be about what you said you were going to be about. [applause] bishop barber we have legitimate discontent. Not only that, our declaration says life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But then it says that the people have the right, whenever there has been a long train of abuses, the people have the right to reshape, restructure and change that government. Anytime it is contrary to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And i want to suggest that unnecessary poverty has been a long train of abuse. People not having health care has been a long train of abuse. Not raising the minimum wage to a living mage living wage has been a long train of abuse. Underfunding education has been a long train of abuse. Attacking gay people and trans people has a long train of abuse. And we have a right and a duty. [applause] bishop barber and so, my brothers and sisters, there is one more thing that gathers us here. We must know our calling. And what is our calling and what i call the aftermath. I have somebody put up on the screen, aftermath. The before math was 140 Million People living in poverty and low wealth. 87 Million People without health care or underinsured. Before math was nearly millions of people who were homeless. Before math were people without homes are on the brink of homelessness. Before math was people who cant by gas or unleaded water. The before math was 200 50,000 people dying a year from poverty. 700 people a day. The beforemath. And then covid hit. In fact, the beforemath was people dying and poverty being the fourth highest cause of death. Thats not because of covid. That is what we went into covid with. And then the duringmath was rehundred 30,000 people not dying from 330,000 people not dying from covid but not having health care. In mississippi, we had one family that lost 20 members in a 20 mile radius. That is the during math. During covid, we call people essential but treated them like they were expendable. Go to work, we said. As a nation, and save us. But we wont pay you living wages. Go to work and risk your life but we wont give you health care. Go to work, go to work. Go to work. We will ring a bell at 6 00. We will clap our hands. But that doesnt do anything when you go to work and you feel like you are saving people who dont care if you live. During math, say the during math. During covid, we saw large numbers of people, poor people, dying at a rate 35 times higher than the rest of the country. And it wasnt because covid is commended toward poor people. It was because the nation discriminated in how we made sure poor people had what they needed to survive. During covid. During covid. We saw that we had an opportunity to raise the living wage. And if we had, nearly 50 million americans and others would have been raised out of poverty and poor wealth. The vote comes and its been debated, it has been part of the president ial campaign. And then two democrats and 40 19 republicans and 49 republicans say no to nearly 50 Million People. But they give 68 of all of the relief money to corporations. And we make more billionaires during covid, while more poor people fall into poverty. Because we lifted them for a moment. Poverty numbers went down, they went down because of the stuff we were fighting for. And we proved if you do the right policies, you will end poverty and low wealth. The problem is we did a little bit during covid and then after covid, all of the stuff is being snatched away. Last week, 6 Million People went off of medicaid. Come on. Thats the during math. Here we are now in the aftermath. What do we do in the aftermath . And in the aftermath, the numbers are going back up. In the aftermath, we are finding out that what we went into, we didnt know it was the fourth leading cause of death. In the aftermath, over one Million People died from covid and we have not spent one week morning mourning. Just one week mourning and remembering. My friends, since we are in the aftermath, then we must make a solemn declaration. Those who have died will not have died in vain. We cannot turn back now. In the aftermath, we must intensify and embolden. We must commit in the aftermath to shift the narrative, to build a movement, put a face on the pain and refused to accept things the way they are. We must be greater truth tellers, love showers and justice seekers. We must be in state capitals, we must be in congress. We must be in the streets. We must be in pulpits. We must be seen. We must be heard. We must be felt. We must use every nonviolent tool at our disposal. We dont have to be an insurrection because we are a resurrection and we are not going anywhere. Nowhere. We cannot be silenced anymore. We cannot the unseen or unheard anymore. We cannot accept poverty as a death sentence. We must have a third reconstruction. We must face these interlocking injustices with an intersectional moral Fusion Movement to turn the tide and to help kill the land. And guess what . We are that movement. Tell your neighbor, we are that movement. We are that movement until death is stopped. Until children are protected. We are that movement. Until lowwage workers are paid. And affordable houses are provided and the atmosphere is saved. We are that movement, until Voting Rights are expanded. Until saving the world and living in peace and lifting the poor is more important than spending money to blow up the world and hurt the poor. We are that movement. We will be that movement. We are not going anywhere. We wont be silent, anymore. Are you that movement . Are you going to stand . Since youre alive in the aftermath, stand. Since you made it through covid, stand. Since youre still here, stand. We are that movement we are that movement we are that movement thats right. Thats right. Poor peoples campaign, a National Call for moral revival. We are that. Now we have to deal with the reason we invited cspan because we cant keep this knowledge in here. You cant shock the heart of the nation if you keep your light under a bushel. You cant shock the heart of the nation and be a moral defibrillator in this you know what the problem is unless you know the problem is. Truth is a moral defibrillator. Policies dont change just with numbers. Policies change when you connect faces to numbers. We want to be faithful of a few things. Change the narrative. Put a face on the policies. Do simultaneous committed things so we are not all individual states doing their own thing. Engage as state capitals. Engage in the congress. Be a massive awake the mass of Sleeping Giant of poor low wealth people who now make up 40 of the electorate. And then just keep being consistent. You dont chop a tree down with one hit of the axe. You have to cut where you wanted to fall. We are not just cursing the darkness. The worst thing you can do is talk about what is wrong and not have an answer. That is our angle. Then we keep hitting in the same place. I dont know if we are that movement that will finish what others started. I dont know if we are that movement that will push all the way almost to the end and another generation will finish it. But we are that movement, that intersectional moral Fusion Movement and we are here to stay. We are in every state. You cant kill all of us. Aint no one person going to stop this movement. We love this country enough to call out in impoverished democracy. We love all of the people in it whether you got a card or no card because god made you. You are a creation of the divine. You are welcome in our midst. This session is on poverty death. Just to say that makes you a mistake on the stomach. Poverty death. With the Poor Peoples Campaign, the National Call for moral revival, we wanted to sponsor this first session. Should we really know what is going on, not assume it. We want your eyes to be looking like you see the death and you cant accept it. We want your hearts to be pumping with a moral refusal. Sometimes you just have to have an internal discontent. You dont have to be evil. You dont have to use weapons and knives and kill nobody, but you can have an internal discontent. But you first have to see it. We will not be loud and wrong. They say weve been waiting for movement. We said, weve got one. Give them a hand. [applause] dr. David brady. Dr. Valerie wilson. Dr. Greg gonzales, a Public Health specialist from yale. He has got all of this research. And her own attorney. And our own attorney. And mr. Jonathan hargrove. He is at a conference where people are getting White Nationalism and evangelicalism exercised. Lord have mercy. Before we go to them, we and our movement always start with a face of those who were impacted. We see these testimonies. Are we ready . We have got two minutes. All right. Take your time and sit with it for a moment. I tell you what, lets pray a little bit of precious memories play a little bit of precious memories. Someone lost someone during covid. Who knows somebody that died from not having health care . Lets bring them in the room. I am a pastor so im going to take you into church just a little bit. We went here during a recent funeral. Help me if i mess the words out. We will not let those who died needlessly, their lives be forgotten. Call their names right now. As long as you call their names, they are never really dead. And if you want to stand for them, stand for them. If you want to say i fight in your memory, i buried my father some 30 years ago on fathers day. I know you miss some people. Scholars, if you want to call their names. Come on, some of you who know how to sing out there. , on. They ever flood my soul in the stillness, stillness, stillness after midnight oh, yes precious memories oh, how where are you at, liz . We remember your mama this one, liz. Flood my soul. Hallelujah in the stillness. Oh, yes sit with that for a minute. Go ahead and play it. Remember all the ancestors. Bring them in the room. Bring them in the room. Come on in here, harriet. Come on in here, joe. Your memory is not lost. Come on in here, dorothy day, rosa. Bring up the testimony. Family, would you share your story from alabama . My name is pamela. I live in a mobile home with my two kids. William barber. Nice to meet you. Thank you for being at this conference. I just heard 100,000 over 100,000. Still paying for it. 100,000 20 years ago. They would not give you the loan for the house. Should be illegal to charge somebody public five times more than it is worth. 20 years ago. Predatory lending. Getting people all tied up in debt. On a house mortgage, interest is only about 3 . I feel bad. I am paying all these bills and i cant give them are you someone who was taken advantage . It is criminal. Yes, they treated us wrong. Burchinal god who loves justice, mercy, praise, we thank you today for pamela and her strength of family. We stand against this kind of oppression and we thank you for giving her the courage by your spirit to say i will no longer be quiet or in hiding. Her daughter is in the room i believe. She is 10 years old. She is on a cpap machine because of the mold in this trailer that she cant get out of because of predatory lenders in alabama. I worked 41 years in the cold months. I have black lung. Im here to tell you as long as i have got a voice, im going to fight with everything ive got to try to keep right now there is a move on especially in kentucky for this new right to work law. It has gotten rid of ever United Mine Workers union in the state of kentucky. There is none anymore in the state of kentucky. I have been a union member since 1968. I have black long. I worked 41 years in the coal mines. But to get back your question, when you introduce laws like that, youre not looking at increasing minimum wage. You looking at going backwards. The world of poverty supposedly started 50 some years ago. We got an old saying in the coal mines, it is rough at the face. Where i live, in southeastern kentucky, it is rough at the face because the poverty in that area has not gotten better, it is worse today than it has ever been. And it is not looking any promising at all until something is done. Until all of the f