By James Wright, Special to the AFRO, jwright@afro.com

The rally on the National Mall and the march to the U.S. Capitol by the 2018 Poor People’s Campaign had many District of Columbia residents participating. The rally and the march, on June 23, were designed to ignite a movement to replicate the Poor People’s Campaign, born in 1968, but faltered after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated that year.

The co-founder of the rally and the march, the Rev. William Barber II of North Carolina, told a crowd of tens of thousands the movement is designed help all Americans be first-class citizens, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

“We are laying the foundation for a movement today,” Barber said. “We can longer look to helicopter leadership or leadership on high, to save us. We are here to call the nation to action. This is not a rally but a campaign.”

The Rev. Graylan Hagler, who was recently arrested for protesting at the Supreme Court, spoke at the June 23 Poor People’s Rally in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy Photo)

The Rev. Graylan Hagler, senior pastor of the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in the District, was arrested recently for protesting at the U.S. Supreme Court. “Democracy will not be protected by this court and the administration,” Hagler said. He said the court’s decisions are made in the District where residents pay federal taxes but don’t have voting representation in the U.S. Congress.

He said recent Supreme Court decisions that justified Ohio purging its voter lists and a cake maker’s right to refuse service to same-sex couples based on religious views are troublesome. “The U.S. Supreme Court is preying on sacred ideals in this country and therefore we have to pray for the soul of the nation,” he said.

Joslyn Williams is the retired president of the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO. Williams told the AFRO he came to the rally because “Dr. King’s dream has been deferred.”

“My presence here is to commit to do anything I can to stand up for justice,” he said.

Vince Robertson brought his son, Marcus, to the rally. Robertson told the AFRO he wanted to educate his son Marcus on social change and how it takes place. “I am trying to get him to see how important it is for him to be engaged on social issues,” he said. “It is important that progressive people have control on issues of health, hunger, and religious freedom because if we don’t someone else will control our agenda.”

Vanessa Barksdale, who lives in Upper Marlboro, said her participation is driven by her sorority’s directive on activism. “I am a member of Delta Sigma Theta and social action is an important part of us,” Barksdale told the AFRO. “Soon after we were founded in 1913, one of our first actions was to participate in a women’s suffrage march in downtown D.C. This is a part of what it means to be a Delta.”

The march to the U.S. Capitol took 30 minutes. Participants left with a mission to take home. “We will launch, later this summer, a massive voter education campaign in the less wealthy areas of the country,” Barber said. “Our politicians are talking about the middle class but no one is talking about helping the poor and we intend to change that.”