What are the protestors doing in some of the images?.What do some of the signs that the protestors are holding say?.Which images in particular stick out to you?.Why do you think Democracy Now! Chose to pair pictures of the march with this song?.Have your students answer the following questions: Blazing Arrow is action it’s an arrow in flight.” Here are the lyrics if your class is interested (the second verse is the one featured in the video). The rapper behind the song explained that the album the song is on, also called Blazing Arrow, “is about conviction and faith and being able to walk a path and make that purpose manifest itself, having the strength to endure that path. The song featured is “Blazing Arrow” by the rap group Blackalicious. Now watch this segment of the Democracy Now! video. (Photo by Allison Bailey/NurPhoto) Extension activity: “Blazing Arrow” by Blackalicious Cornel West greets Bishop William Barber after speaking at the Poor People’s Campaign’s (PPC) Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. Barber, check out his interview with PBS Newshour in 2020.

Media literacy: What political perspective do you think Democracy Now! comes from? Do you think that it is more biased than other news outlets, or just biased in a different direction? Is political bias an issue for you if the outlet’s reporting is still fact-based?įor more on Rev.Media literacy: Ask your students to use the internet to find national outlets that covered this event - What did you come up with? more or less than you expected?.

Consider the fact that the Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal” and have “unalienable rights” to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Do you agree that poverty is inconsistent with what the founders imagined?

Barber describes the current state of poverty in America as “constitutionally inconsistent.” By this he means that the current economic state of the country is not in line with the founding fathers’ vision.

What problems were addressed by Reconstruction in the 1860s-70s and the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s? Are those challenges comparable to the ones that exist today?

Barber calls for a “Third Reconstruction” and states that the Civil Rights Movement was a second reconstruction following the first one after the Civil War.

Do you agree with his framing of this issue? How is this different from the way that you usually hear poverty and government policy discussed in the news?

Barber describes these conditions as “policy murder,” indicating his belief that the government not addressing poverty is tantamount to a crime.

He says there are “140 million poor and low wealth people in this country” and “87 million people who are uninsured or underinsured.” Do these numbers surprise you? How do they make you feel? Barber gives about poverty in the United States. Have your class watch this video from Democracy Now!, an audience-supported, left-leaning news program, before discussing the questions below.

Representatives of many left-wing political movements and religious groups spoke and were in attendance.

On Saturday, June 18, 2022, thousands of protestors gathered for a rally near the U.S. In 2018, the Poor People’s campaign was revived by a new generation of leaders to continue a fight against poverty and structural racism. Following his assassination in 1968, the movement continued with an occupation of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. King’s previous activism had helped achieve integration and voting rights for Black people, but he believed that minorities would never be truly equal until they could achieve an equal economic footing. In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) announced the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement that would work to combat economic inequality and poverty. (Note: you will need to make a copy of the document to edit it). For a Google version of this lesson plan, click here.

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