Economic Justice: Carrying Forward Dr. Kings Poor People’s Campaign

On January 24, 2019 as part of OSU’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, students, faculty, staff and community members came together at the HSRC for Economic Justice: Carrying Forward Dr. Kings Poor People’s Campaign.  In addition to providing access to basic needs resources, the HSRC also serves as a community space for dialogue around social justice issues such as class(ism), poverty, and food insecurity.

Participants of Economic Justice spent the afternoon sharing a meal while discussing the lasting relevance of the Poor People’s Campaign and its guiding values. The Poor People’s Campaign was a movement organized in 1968 by Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The campaign brought together multiracial poor and working class people to advocate for the “abolition of poverty” through the creation of an Economic Bill of Rights. The proposed Economic Bill of Rights included: a meaningful job and living wage for every employable citizen, a secure and adequate income for all who cannot find jobs or for whom employment is inappropriate, access to land and capital to secure full participation in the economic life of America, and for people to play a significant role in determining how government programs are designed and carried out.  Source: https://www.crmvet.org/docs/68ebr.htm

Dr. King and campaign organizers called for a mass mobilization of an “army of the poor” to Washington D.C. to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience and petition the government to take action towards eradicating poverty. Tragically, Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, a day after he marched for economic justice with striking sanitation workers in Memphis. While Dr. King’s vision of “a radical redistribution of economic power” was not realized, 50 years after his assassination, the “evils of racism, poverty and militarism” remain as relevant today as they were then. Our group discussed the vision laid out in Dr. King’s Economic Bill of Rights, and updated it to reflect the needs of today.

Economic Bill of Rights for 2019

  • Free/Universal Education
  • No borders/requirement of citizenship to access rights
  • Universal healthcare
  • Access to mental health care and time to self-care
  • Give program power to people for whom the government is working for
  • Those most affected should have the right to determine how assistance programs are designed and administered
  • Votes for prisoners
  • Redistribution instead of “access”
  • Extra-low income housing/access to good housing
  • Meaningful jobs should be beneficial for humans and the ecosystem
  • Universal Basic Income
  • Political processes
  • Who determines what is “meaningful” and “adequate”?
  • Job should be expanded to calling/vocation/passion
  • Access to land as a means of livelihood=unplugging from capitalism

Specific to OSU

  • Increased funding for higher education from the state so students don’t feel the blunt of tuition
  • Lower tuition and book costs
  • Having accessible and environmentally friendly course materials
  • Universal meal plans
  • Free housing
  • Cap top administrators salary to a percentage of average employee salary
  • Students have a real seat at administration table
  • Freedom to teach/to express speech that critiques government and OSU
  • Livable wage for all faculty (specifically adjunct faculty)
  • Instructors treated like real employees-not second class
  • Unionization and organization beyond labor lines
  • More community gardens

In the poor people’s campaign, King advocated for nonviolent direct action that pushed America toward a social revival of morals grounded in love. He believed that systemic injustice and exploitation dehumanized people, both the oppressed and the oppressors, preventing them from truly loving each other. He understood that by expressing love through acts of nonviolent resistance to specific structural injustices–we are ultimately practicing love by eradicating systems that prevent people from seeing each other as fully human.

In order to realize our hopes and dreams for a more just future and society, our group discussed and shared actions we can take today to carry forward Dr. King’s values of racial and economic justice. 

Actions for Carrying Forward the Poor People’s Campaign

  • Organize poor people as an equal partner in our community
  • Welcome folx into the womxn & gender space by putting on events about self-care and love
  • Engage more with others by talking, smiling, hugging, etc.
  • Keep an eye out for individual suffering & work to support the victim more
  • Vote in local elections
  • Choose a committee on campus to bring the voice of economic justice to the conversations
  • Focus research on equity concerns
  • Show up and lobby
  • Be brave in teaching–ask tough questions, paint the big picture, challenge students to reflect on how they are now part of the problem and can be part of the solutions–despite precarity of employment
  • Approach others with a mindset of charity (assume the best of others)
  • Go outside more–more face to face connections
  • #TrySocialism
  • Listen to others with non-judgement and an open mind
  • Share my wealth
  • Volunteer to help those in need
  • Be the change we want to see!

The issues of racism, poverty, economic inequality, and militarism are as much of an issue in 2019, as they were in 1968. An Economic Bill of Rights rooted in the values of Dr. King and the Poor People’s Campaign in needed now more than ever. Despite the injustice that persists today, people left feeling a sense of hope in what we can accomplish together as a collective.

In One Snap, Students got SNAP

An illustration of two hands holding a banana and an orange, with the words one snap, get SNAP, reduce the stigma get SNAP benefits

The Human Services Resource Center and Student Sustainability Initiative aim to reduce student hunger with “One Snap, Get SNAP.”

On January 19th, 2018,  over the course of four hours, 53  students, in both graduate and undergraduate studies, filtered through to begin their applications for SNAP benefits, otherwise known as food stamps. Application processes can be intimidating. As we heard from one student, “I’ve attempted to apply before but never completed the application due to not being sure about some of the answers.” To help with the application process three SNAP experts from the OSU Extension SNAP Outreach team and the Oregon Department of Human Services were on hand to assist as needed. Staff had both paper applications, and provided laptops so students can complete the online application if that was their preference. 

A student is seated at a computer, an adult looks over her shoulder pointing at the screen to help her get SNAP benefits.
A DHS representative helps a student apply for SNAP benefits.

Roughly 36% of OSU students reported not having enough financial resources on the 2017 Campus Inclusivity Survey. While the average student attending the event applied for benefits only for themselves, at least 5 students who responded to our follow-up survey applied for benefits for a household of two or more people. One student shared through the survey: “This was such a helpful event. I kept on putting off doing the paperwork and was worried I wouldn’t get benefits. Any questions I had were answered and I don’t have to worry as much.” Eligibility qualifications for students can be confusing, so having staff available to assist was key to the successful event. 

Food was provided at the event, and 323 KIND granola bars were distributed, each affixed with stickers promoting event details prior to the 19th.  An important  value of the HSRC is abundance of resources, especially in regard to food. The HSRC sees the need many students experience in the form of increased Food Assistance Application numbers. Increased attendance at the multiple monthly food pantry nights at Avery Lodge, and term by term growth of the Textbook Lending Program also illustrate the growing need of students. Providing food at the event ensured that everyone who came by, at least got to eat lunch for the day.

Through the efforts of the HSRC and SSI, the students who attended “One Snap, Get SNAP” could, combined, receive upwards of $50,000 in grocery money over the course of the next six months (approximately $157 per month per person, though individuals could be eligible for up to $189 per month and those with families or dependents could see even more). While not a permanent fix to student hunger, programming and outreach for SNAP benefits helps provide students with resources that better allow them to focus on school.  Providing access to these community resources on campus, where students spend a lot of their time, helps make the process for applying for SNAP benefits easier. When students aren’t worried about where their next meal is coming from they are better able to concentrate on school and make the most of their education, further enriching themselves and their communities.