In MLK rally, Sacramento’s Poor People’s Campaign calls for change after Capitol violence
On Friday, yards from a California state Capitol walled off over the threat of violence, the Poor People’s Campaign was the latest of the many organizations to denounce last week’s violent insurrection by pro-Trump supports at the U.S. Capitol.
“That was a form of domestic terrorism,” said Faye Wilson Kennedy, co-chair of California’s Poor People’s Campaign.
The California chapter made its voice heard during a rally at the California State Library, in the ellipsis that frames the state Capitol and Capitol Mall in downtown Sacramento.
“They went there with the intent to kill or to injure people,” Kennedy said. “The moral obligation to all of us is that we can’t allow that to happen. Not only in our state, we can’t allow that to happen within our local cities.”
Kennedy, joined by others in the group, felt it was important to declare their peaceful stance ahead of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, a federal and state holiday that honors the slain civil rights leader.
The group believes the same issues King fought against and died for are fueling extremism today.
“Such violence always erupts when there is the greatest possibility for change,” the campaign said in a statement. “What we saw ... is not the dream of America, but it has too often been the practice of America.”
White nationalists, the campaign argues, are in fear of social justice, not socialism. The organization called out the “extremist politicians” for contributing to a deeper racial divide in America. The Poor People’s Campaign criticized the politicians for being co-conspirators in the insurrection as well.
“We call on our lawmakers and justice system to hold President Trump, senators, congress persons, and all elected and appointed officials who had a role in these heinous attacks accountable for their actions, swiftly and to the full extent of the law,” the Poor People’s Campaign statement read.
The group, which went on a caravan through the city Friday, later shares its message on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 15th Street in Oak Park. Beyond their denouncement of violence, they urged Congress to pass new stimulus relief for those affected by COVID-19 and the economic toll of shutdowns.
More than four of five Black workers in California have sought unemployment benefits during the pandemic — a rate nearly twice the state average — according to a report by the California Policy Lab in November.
“We need monies to come to California. We need monies to come to Sacramento so that we can survive,” Kennedy told Fox 40.
Blacks and other minorities have also suffered from the coronavirus at higher rates than whites, according to the COVID Tracking Project. According to the group, African Americans have died at a rate 1.6 times higher than whites.
The group says where the ethnicity of victims is known, 7% of Black Californians have died from the disease caused by the coronavirus — despite African Americans making up only 6% of the population. Whites, which make up 37% of the state’s residents, accounts for nearly 32% of deaths linked to COVID-19 where race was known. According to the Tracking Project, Latinos have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic: 55% of cases and 47% of deaths in the state have been among California’s 39% Latino population.
With the transition of presidential administrations just days away, the Poor People’s Campaign also detailed their priorities that they would like to see addressed in the next term. Those priorities focused on equity and utilizing the power of executive orders to reverse the orders placed by the previous White House.