NEW YORK CITY – On Sunday, October 27th, Bishop William J. Barber, II, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach and national co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, delivered the first in a series of national sermons laying out what’s at stake for faith communities and our democracy in the 2024 election.
“What is happening now that demands our vote and our voice? Why is it that we can’t be silent? If we ever needed a voice and a vote we need it now,” he declared to the attendees, on the urgency of his message and sermon.
Bishop Barber highlighted the human cost of poverty in the United States.
“295,000 people died this year from poverty. Poverty kills more people than homicide, gun violence, diabetes, breathing disorders,” he said.
He also explained how those in power have failed the poor, pointing to a failed Senate vote to raise the minimum wage.
“In 2021, there was a bill that went to the Senate that would’ve lifted 52 million people out of poverty and low wages that earn less than $15 an hour. At that time, when that bill came to the floor, all the Republicans and eight Senate Democrats blocked it and said no to 52 million people,” he said.
However, he argued, poor and low-income people have the power to force those in the government to finally pay attention to their needs by voting in this year’s elections.
He pointed to the millions of poor and low-wage infrequent voters around the country.
“In 2020, 58 million people who are poor and low-wage cast ballots. But 30 million didn’t. And they said the number one reason that they didn’t is nobody talks to them. In the nine battleground states, poor people make up more than 43% of the electorate. In the entire country, if poor and low-income voters who didn’t vote went to the polls in 2024, they would have the power to change the election,” he said. “Poor and low wage people are the stones that the builders rejected that can now become the cornerstone of a new America.”
The Riverside address was the first in three national sermons Bishop Barber will be delivering before the upcoming 2024 election, with two additional addresses planned for November 3 – at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Union Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.