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Hospitality to the Homeless ˜ 97
the whole world. That was the Poor People’s Campaign, rooted in a stance
against war, saying “No” to Vietnam, and “No” to that violence, and “Yes” to
whites and blacks and poor coming together and holding hands and marching
a new march. And that’s why we come here today. We come for a new Poor People’s
Crusade which will change the USA!
We’re happy even in the midst of our grief. We are hopeful even in the face
of despair because in this room we come together because we’re ready to move
forward. Now we’re saying “No” to the death at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis,
Tennessee, and “Yes” to the Poor People’s Crusade, because it is going to emerge
now, in a new way, with an agenda for justice and for peace and for equality. So
it is. Amen.
I come today to stand before you, for by my life and work I represent the
8,753 homeless people who walk and wander our streets for no right reason here
in Atlanta, Georgia. I stand as one who lives among, and with, and on behalf of
those who early this morning climbed out of filthy cat holes, abandoned buildings,
and church shelters which are now ready to close for the summer months.
Leaving stinky places without breakfast, they had to make the choice: do I go to
a labor pool and accept the crummiest, crappiest kind of work available at less
than $3.35 per hour, or do I go down to Butler Street CME Church for a bowl
of breakfast Here in Atlanta, to choose to work is a choice not to eat. And so I
come before you with the voice of the hungry and the homeless.
There are three causes of homelessness. The first reason we have homelessness
in the United States of America and in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, is that
homeless people are a social benefit for us. There’s money in homelessness. People
benefit from homelessness, and that is why we have homelessness. In this
hour, as we talk, many bodies across this city lie in plasma banks with their arms
stretched out like our Savior on the cross, and there’s a needle stuck in their
veins. Blood is being sucked out of them. Because that blood is dripping out
right now, we benefit in the production of medicine and medical research. There
is homelessness in this land because it is a social benefit. We must come together
to find ways to empower the poor so that we can say “No” to the selling of the
poor and of their bodies for our access to medicine and medical research.
Another social benefit of homelessness is labor. There is much work in this
society that is so dangerous that labor-union forepersons won’t allow their union
members to do it. Instead, they telephone a labor pool—a modern slave market
that works mainly in the dark, dim hours of the morning. The foreperson says,
“Send me somebody to climb way up on this bridge and paint it. I don’t want
somebody I’m going to see again.” Or they call, breaking the Civil Rights Act
and fair-employment practices, and they say, “I tell you what I want. I want
three workers, and don’t send me a Black woman. I want three workers, and
don’t send me a Black. And I tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to put
’em right to work with acid. And on the third day, even wearing big rubber