The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Portfolio features a series of twenty-five screenprints by twenty-four artists that express the fundamental principles and core concepts that guide the work of the new Poor People’s Campaign. On December 4, 1967, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. announced plans for a Poor People’s Campaign and called for the nation to take dramatic steps to end poverty. In the wake of his assassination the Campaign went forward but fell short of its vision. Fifty years later, a new Poor People’s Campaign has emerged from over a decade of work by grassroots movements fighting to end poverty, racism, militarism, and environmental destruction. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is building a broad and deep national movement—rooted in the leadership of poor people—to unite from the bottom up in a Campaign that can bring forth a moral revolution of values to achieve equality and justice for all people.
On the 50th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Beyond Vietnam speech, organizers from the new Poor People’s Campaign reached out to artists across the country with a general call for artwork addressing the themes central to the Campaign. Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative responded to the call by setting out to make a popular education portfolio for Campaign activists and organizers to use during regional and local teach-ins in preparation for the 40 Days of Moral Action that will begin on Mother’s Day, May 2018.
A red cross is featured, and below, the text reads: “Stand courageously, organize successfully, mobilize consistently, speak the truth relentlessly, pray fervently, preach prophetically, sue legally, vote massively — Reverend Dr. William Barber.” and in small type below, it states: “As Reverend Dr. King was building the 1967-68 Poor People’s Campaign, he said, ‘Disinherited people all over the world are bleeding to death from deep social and economic wounds. They need brigades of ambulance drivers who will have to ignore the red lights of the present system until the emergency is solved.’ Reverend Dr. Barber has answered the call to help lead brigades of ambulance drivers to heal the deep wounds of racism, militarism, and poverty. He has taken up the call to finish the unfinished business of Rev. D. Martin Luther King and build a Poor People’s Campaign for today.” Artist’s name in bottom corner is Colin Matthes, 2017.