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 collage of names of charitable foundations is placed on a pane of glass. A gaping, cracking hole in the glass reveals the following text: “TRUE COMPASSION IS MORE THAN FLINGING A COIN TO A BEGGAR; IT COMES TO SEE THAT AN EDIFICE WHICH PRODUCES BEGGARS NEEDS RETRUCTURING. — Martin Luther King, Jr.” To the side, a hand reaches down and lifts up another’s hand.
