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Much Work Remains to be Done

We Can Never Stay Home Again
Dear Friend,

Ahmann & Martin Luther King at March on Washington
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with Catholic civil rights activist Matthew Ahmann
During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, Sr. Mary Peters, a leader of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice, may have said it best. Speaking to a fellow nun, she said, "Once you have marched in Selma, Sister, you can never stay home again." These words are surely emblematic of the experience of many people of faith and of good will - including Catholics - who were called to Selma, to Mobile, to Memphis, and elsewhere, throughout the 1960's and to Washington, DC on a hot August day in 1963.

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who led our nation to address the injustices that had been meted out to African Americans and the poor.  Dr. King gave us a vision and dream, most notably in his 1963 speech at the March on Washington that remains a beacon of hope for our nation and the world.

We have made progress as a society in moving towards the vision of Dr. King's dream.  However, as we have witnessed in recent years, particularly in the unnecessary, tragic, and unjust deaths of African American men that have given rise to the Twitter hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, we have a long way to go.

Today, the African American and Hispanic communities suffer injustices related to: voting rights, poverty and jobs, criminal justice, full participation in society, cultural bias, learned prejudice, continued racism, and now immigration.  In some cases, these injustices have not changed since the 1960's.  For example, according to the Economic Policy Institute, in 1963, Black unemployment was 2.2 times that of White unemployment.  In 2013, it was 2.1 times White unemployment.  However, in other cases, these injustices have taken on new forms that are deceptively subtle.  These injustices bring with them the same adverse affects that diminish the lives of millions of our sisters and brothers of color, and their pain and suffering ultimately diminishes the common good and all of our lives as well.  Consider these additional facts:

  • According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in 2013, 31 states had introduced 82 bills that would restrict voting rights, predominantly affecting lower income people and the poor, disproportionately affecting African Americans and Hispanics.
  • According to the NAACP, African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of Whites. African Americans and Hispanics comprised 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though they made up only a quarter of the population in the United States.

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed, Dr. King undertook the "the Poor People's Campaign," which he thought of as the second phase of the Civil Rights struggle.  Like Sr. Mary Peters, whom he inspired, he could never stay home again.  In the end, it cost him his life.

It is fitting that we celebrate Dr. King's life in January.  January is Poverty Awareness Month, a designation given it by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, now the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, decades ago.  We cannot think about poverty, or economic inequality or inequality of opportunity without thinking about race.  To this day, they go hand in hand.

According to the most recent statistics on poverty published by the US Census Bureau, poverty for African Americans and Hispanics is 2.8 and 2.4 times that of the White non-Hispanic population.  And within those communities, poverty disproportionately impacts children and families headed by a female.  The poverty rate for African American and Hispanic children is 3.6 and 2.8 times that for White, non-Hispanic children, respectively.  According to the Urban Institute, on average, the wealth of the White population is 6 times that for Blacks and Hispanics.

Nun & priest marching - Civli Rights Movement in 1960's As Catholics, we should be particularly aware of the prophetic vision of Dr. King.  Pope Francis has called inequality a social evil and asked why our society has more interest in the stock market going up than the death of a homeless person.  Dr. King referred to poverty as "a second evil which plagues the modern world...."

Today is a national holiday. Many, if not most, of us are at home.  But it is also a day for those of us who want to work for justice in the world as a matter of our faith to remember and recommit ourselves to the words of Sr. Mary Peters and to learn from the life of Dr. King, that we will "never stay home again" in the work we do to help those most in need.

In peace and appreciation for your support,

PS  Catholic Democrats relies on your donations to help us raise awareness about the issue of poverty, and the breadth of issues advocated for by the Catholic Social Justice Tradition, in the public square and within our Church and Congress.   Please consider making a donation, or even $5 or $10, to help us further our work and to help grow our
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