Poor People's Campaign vs Glen Beck

It seems that Glenn Beck has pissed off every group involved in protecting the rights of the poor. One group, The Poor People's Campaign out of Chicago, Illinois is talking about how Glenn Beck’s views and actions are diametrically opposed to everything the late Dr. Martin Luther King fought for, particularly as it relates to poor people and The Poor People's Campaign.





Check out the recent press release about Glenn Beck and the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King HERE. Jerry Robinson, President of the Poor People's Campaign has a lot to say about Glenn Beck.



PRESS RELEASE


National Headquarters, Chicago, IL


Contact person: Mr. Jerry L Robinson, President


Much has been said over the past few days about Fox News host Glenn Beck and his Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial which took place on the 47th anniversary of the “ I Have A Dream” speech. He has increasingly claimed to be taking up the mantle of the civil rights movement. Earlier in the week, Beck boasted that the rally will “reclaim the civil rights movement” and called the current civil rights community an “abomination.”


While Mr. Beck is attempting to fashion himself Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and trying to take up the mantle of the civil rights movement, we at the Poor People’s Campaign know that he is ultimately unfit to even speak on behalf of Martin Luther King’s legacy. It is clear to the Poor People’s campaign that Glenn Beck’s views and actions are diametrically opposed to everything the late Dr. Marin Luther King fought for: Particularly as it relates to poor people and The Poor Peoples Campaign. We agree with Media Matters when they write:


KING believed that it was America’s collective responsibility to provide economic justice for all. In 1961, the civil rights leader addressed the AFL-CIO on his vision of the American Dream. King said that his vision of America’s promise was a country where “equality of opportunity, of privilege and property [are] widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.” King helped launch a Poor People’s Campaign based around demanding that “President Lyndon Johnson and Congress help the poor get jobs, health care and decent homes.” The civil rights legend explained that poverty was a problem that couldn’t be solved without a “the nation spending billions of dollars — and undergoing a radical redistribution of economic power.” He spent the last days of his life campaigning on behalf of a living wage for striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.  Read more at The Poor People's Campaign Website.