On the heels of Juneteenth, Poor Peoples Campaign to air virtual March on Washington tomorrow

Today is Juneteenth, which commemorates the day, June 19, 1865, that the last enslaved people in the United States found out they were free.

But the effects of slavery have never left us.

In the 1960s, Black Americans were still being held hostage by Jim Crow laws, which redlined them into segregation and prevented them from achieving economic prosperity.

Toward the end of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., expanded his vision for racial justice to include poverty, economic injustice, and the war economy.

In 1968, Dr. King embarked on the Poor People’s Campaign to bring a multiracial coalition to Washington, D.C. to demand to demand a “radical redistribution of economic power.” But King was assassinated before he could see this enormous project through.

Today, revived under the leadership of Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, the Poor People's Campaign is still fighting the good fight against systemic racism, poverty, and capitalist systems they say prioritize militarization and environmental destruction over people.

This week, the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will extend Juneteenth celebrations into the weekend, with a digital assembly and Moral March on Washington on Saturday, June 20.

There's still time to RSVP to participate!

You can watch the two-hour rally at that website or at The Illinois Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

The rally will be broadcast at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. tomorrow and at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Momentum is growing. The PPC is working with more than 200 partner organizations across the country, including unions, religious denominations, and social and environmental justice organizations to ensure that its message is heard far and wide: Somebody's been hurting our people, and it's gone on for far too long. And WE WON'T BE SILENT ANYMORE.

Watch a moving video about the Poor People's Campaign here.