Among those gathered at San Francisco City Hall for the PPC march on December 11, 2019, were Peninsula/Palo Alto branch member Cherrill S. (left), with Jackie Cabasso of Western States Legal Foundation, and the North American Coordinator of Mayors for Peace, and Betty T. of San Francisco WILPF.

By Judy Adams
Peninsula/Palo Alto Branch

February 2020

WILPF members were among the hundreds who marched from San Francisco City Hall to Glide Memorial Church on December 11, 2019, as part of the Poor People’s Campaign nine-month “We Must Do M.O.R.E.” national tour.

Branch members, anonymous volunteers, and ProBono photographers Deborah Hoag and Leon Kunstenaar took many photos of the event, and a slideshow can be viewed here.

After marching through San Francisco, the marchers gathered at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church for a Mass Meeting where they heard from community members directly impacted by systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the corrupt moral narrative. Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the PPC, also spoke at the meeting.

The church was packed, with big banners at the front and back made by volunteers, including Rev. Rowan F. of the San Jose Branch (on the far right in the photo, in her motorized wheelchair), who helped make one of them. Signs at the ends of each pew (in both Spanish and English) stated the issues the PPC focuses on (such as “The War Economy is Immoral”).

At the front of the church the speakers, guest preachers, and a small jazz group and gospel choir were seated. At a pew arranged for WILPF members were Bay Area WILPFers Barbara B., Betty T., Rowan F., and me (Judy A.) Before the program began, I and a volunteer held up our branch PPC/WILPF banner inside the church to show WILPF’s support as a national PPC partner.

Clergy and community activists spoke movingly of the loss of jobs, homes, and businesses in the black community in the San Francisco area, where poverty, depression, addiction, lost hope, and violence can grind people down. Rev. Theoharis and an array of other speakers spoke powerfully about the moral imperative of the PPC to change these conditions, challenging all of us to build on the four pillars of the PPC: to end poverty, racism, militarism, and the devastation of the planet.

A jazz quartet, drumming, gospel choir, and soloist raised our spirits, and there were repeated chants of “20-2020,” representing June 20, 2020, when the PPC will convene another “moral congress” in Washington, DC.

Near the end of the program, Rev. Barber came to the pulpit, then walked to the steps below the pulpit and invited the poor among us to join him. Pointing to the rest of us in the congregation, he reminded us that the movement’s goal was not for others to speak for the poor, but for the poor to find the power within to speak for themselves. As he made clear, the moral revival is theirs to make and ours to support.
Photo: Deb Hoag, Pro Bono Photo.

We left the church inspired to act, to do MORE in our communities: Mobilizing, Organizing, Registering and Educating, to fight poverty, not the poor.