'We Have the Resources to End Poverty'

Fifty years ago, on April 4, 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The dreamer is gone, but the dream remains.

King’s dream of a beloved community embodying God-given life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for all was at the heart of his pastoral calling. His call for the Poor People’s Campaign and his support of striking Memphis sanitation workers were steps toward his vision of the promised land. 

Upon his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he said: “There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”  -Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith, National Senior Associate for Pan African and Orthodox Church Engagement, Bread for the World

King was working to broaden the scope of the civil rights movement to include poverty and the end of the war in Vietnam. King and his leadership team planned to bring thousands of poor people to Washington, D.C., where they would camp out on the National Mall until Congress passed legislation to eradicate poverty.

King was convinced that for the civil rights movement to achieve its goals, poverty needed to become a central focus of the movement. He believed the poor could lead a movement that would revolutionize society and end poverty. As King noted, “The only real revolutionary, people say, is a man who has nothing to lose. There are millions of poor people in this country who have little, or nothing to lose.”

With over 43 million people living in poverty in the United States today, King’s ideas still hold much power.   -Joshua F.J. Inwood, Sojourners (Read full reflection)

On this day, as we reflect on [Dr. King’s] life and work, we need to ask ourselves if we are doing all we can to build the culture of love, respect and peace to which the Gospel calls us… This anniversary gives us an important moment to draw inspiration from the way in which Dr. King remained undeterred in his principle of nonviolent resistance, even in the face of years of ridicule, threats and violence for the cause of justice...We can best honor Dr. Martin Luther King and preserve his legacy by boldly asking God—today and always—to deepen our own commitment to follow [God’s] will wherever it leads in the cause of promoting justice . -U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Administrative Committee