In sight of both the Statue of Liberty and the Charging Bull of Wall Street, NYC residents, clergy and community leaders will gather for from 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., to lift up the contradictions of this place as a symbol of both historic welcome and obsession with wealth. We will call on the state’s budget to be a moral document, and we will highlight how the lack of funding has impacted criminal justice, education, healthcare, housing and immigration. We will challenge the City’s profiteers that put profit above people and those most impacted by these immoral policies and practices will share their stories with those gathered to demand that our needs be met.  New York City is undeniably a place of abundance, even extravagance, and in this City we challenge the narrative of scarcity and acknowledge our collective ability to end poverty.

Demonstrators are coming together from a variety of New York City religious and advocacy groups, including Community Voices Heard, Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign, The New Sanctuary Coalition, Rise and Resist, Union Theological Seminary, The Kairos Center, Middle Collegiate Church, Judson Memorial Church, The Riverside Church and the Presbytery of New York. Though we represent different causes and constituencies, we are convinced that there cannot be true progress on any individual issue until we collectively address the systemic evils that are decimating our communities. Poverty, systemic racism, militarism and environmental degradation are not separate issues but interlocking injustices that must be confronted as one.

Speakers at the morning’s demonstration will include Ravi Ragbir, Executive Director of the New Sanctuary Coalition; Rose Fernandez and Jenny Tavales of Community Voices Heard; Rev. Benjamin Perry from Union Theological Seminary Jonathan Soto, the former executive director of Mayor DeBlasio’s coalition for faith and community partnerships; and Devki Joshi,a medical student who will testify about injustices in our healthcare system.

Together, we will call on legislators to create a budget that prioritizes our state’s deep humanitarian needs, instead of profit. When 50.5% of New Yorkers are poor or low-income, we need to change our priorities. Creating ever-expanding wealth is immoral if we do not use that money to address the 2.4 million New York residents who are food insecure, the 3.6 million people who lack health insurance, the 1.7 million New Yorkers living beneath the poverty line. A more just world is possible, it’s time to start building it.

---

About the Poor People’s Campaign:

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral is building a broad and deep national moral movement – rooted in the leadership of poor people and reflecting the great moral teachings – to unite our country from the bottom up. Coalitions have formed in 39 states and Washington, D.C. to challenge extremism locally and at the federal level and to demand a moral agenda for the common good.

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is co-organized by Repairers of the Breach, a social justice organization founded by the Rev. Barber; the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary; and hundreds of local and national grassroots groups across the country.

---

Rev. Benjamin Perry

Deputy Director of Communications & Marketing

Union Theological Seminary

914.406.6285

Copyright © 2006-2025, Harlem One Stop, Inc. All rights reserved.
Website developed and made possible by a gift from Zero Defect Design LLC