Jackson water crisis: Moral Monday pushes for solution

Contact: Yolanda Barksdale | ybarksdale@breachrepairers.org

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival continues Moral Monday over water crisis in Mississippi 

The Mississippi Moral Monday will challenge the governor & state assembly actions as immoral with focus on effect of unclean water on youth;  pastors & their congregations & doctors & patients

The next Moral Monday in Jackson, Mississippi, will continue to pressure state and federal officials to bring clean water to the 175,000 residents of the state capital. Led by poor and low-wage residents of all colors, clergy and advocates, Moral Monday will continue to expose to the public the utter moral, health and economic failure of the state government’s refusal to work with the city leadership to end a problem that has existed for decades.

Under the banner of “Free the Land, Clean the Water, Keep It Public,” the Mississippi, Poor People’s Campaign, in partnership with the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition, will lead the march and rally, which begins at 5:30 p.m. CT  on Oct. 10 at Smith Robertson Museum, 528 Bloom St. The rally begins at 6 p.m. CT at the intersection of Capitol and Congress streets, 300 E. Congress St., under the shadow of the Governor’s Mansion. 

The live stream will be available here. A video about the previous Moral Monday on Sept. 26 is here. 

The main testifiers will be youth, pastors and doctors, all impacted by this continuing injustice. The national leadership of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival was invited four weeks ago to help the state leadership build a Moral Monday strategy that first began in North Carolina, where it lasted over three years and produced major political and moral victories.

Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the PPC:NCMR, will moderate the talk with two local leaders, and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the PPC:NCMR, will also join the march and rally. 

Mississippi Moral Monday on Sept. 26, 2022 (photo by Stephen Pavey/Poor People’s Campaign/Repairers of the Breach/Kairos Center 

In addition, Bishop Barber has been invited by students at Tougaloo College to preach at 6 p.m. CT Sunday as a precursor to the event on Monday.

The current water crisis, which is one of many in Jackson over the past few decades because of the city’s infrastructure issues, left about 175,000 residents without clean water needed to bathe, cook and drink. The most recent crisis began at the end of August when a historic rainfall caused a severe drop in water pressure.

The city of Jackson is 82% Black, and 48% of people, or 1.3 million residents, in Mississippi are poor or low-income. That includes 58% of children (417,000), 52% of women (792,000), 65% of Black people (708,000), 66% of Latinx people (54,000), and 39% of White people (649,000). In addition, 37% of census tracts in Mississippi are at-risk for being unable to afford water.