Skip to main content

Occupy The Dream: African American Clergy Join the Occupation Movement

Speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday, African American ministers announced their plans to join the Occupy Wall Street protesters on income inequality in the country with Occupy The Dream (OTD), a grass roots effort designed around the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Today we are mapping out change", said Reverend Dr. Jamal Bryant, pastor the Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, MD.  "The war on poverty, unemployment, economic inequality and greed has, in fact, ravished our nation down to its core."

The Occupy The Dream movement spearheaded by Bryant (National spokesperson),  Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jr. (national director), and others plan to take back main street, at the expense of Wall Street.



Bryant, and others, are calling on major Wall Street banks like Bank of America, Capital One, Chase and others to invest money into the community for jobs training and jobs creation, instead of lining the pockets of company CEOs and taking from the American poor and middle class.

Joining forces with Occupy the Dream is David DeGraw, independent journalist, on the front lines of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

"It's shocking, once you know the fraudulent activity of Wall Street", said DeGraw, calling Wall Street the largest ponzi scheme of all time.

DeGraw married with one child, and another on the way, told us "I've dedicated my life to this. If we don't do something now the situation will just get worse."

Since 2009 the country has seen unemployment rates unlike never before. While the national unemployment rate still hovers at the 9% mark, major cities, like Washington, DC find the unemployment rate, especially among African Americans, to be in the double digits.


Dr. Benjamin Chavis (l) and Pastor Jamal Bryant announce  'Occupy The Dream'
 joined by members of the African American clergy in support of the Occupy movement.

"You'd be amazed at how many people with PhDs and master degrees are at soap kitchens", said Bryant.

The organization is also also hoping for a moratorium on home foreclosures.  Many families have lost not only their jobs, but their homes, leaving far too many Americans homeless. It is estimated that as many as 1 in 4 American children are homeless as well, or living in poverty. The country's youth are also facing attacks on the education front, with legislators cutting back the amounts given in Pell Grants to college students, an issue the organization also plans to address, and sees as an opportunity to get the nation's youth involved.

The group is planning an official launch on January 13, 2012, the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It has plans to hold a job fair in Baltimore on this date. Further plans include occupying US embassies.

With several Occupy protesters jailed, beaten, and pepper sprayed, the movement is still going strong with over 300 'Occupy' movements. 
 
Many have asked why more African Americans haven't participated in the Occupy movement.

"From Washington, DC to New York, to Oakland, we are occupied until poverty is completely eradicated", said Bryant.  "The next 60 days there will be some strategic movement."

OWS's DeGraw promises that "come this spring, we're going to be unstoppable."

Related
See also AmpedStatus.comOccupyWall Street.org,

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Howard Hires Hannah-Jones

  Nikole Hannah-Jones reminds us all why HBCUs were created in the first place. (July 7, 2021) -  Howard University offered an olive branch to Jones when her own alma mater, the University of North Carolina, chose not to offer this great talent in journalism a tenured professor position. [ Alumus Ta-Nahisi Coates  joins Howard roster] ICYMI, Jones is the creator of The 1619 Project, a documentary that chronicles the early institution of slavery and its role in shaping the Americas we know today. Source: The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones. The Project has garnered both acceptance and criticism. Those who support the vision understand that the truths about slavery have, throughout American history, been either whitewashed, or not taught at all, diminishing the roles and treatment of the African nations who built it. Slavery, in all fifty states (including the ‘stateless’ District of Columbia) built an economic powerhouse infrastructure that caused the United State...

DC Affordable Housing Realized?

 From the Office of DC Mayor, Muriel Bowser (Washington, DC) – Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser celebrated the opening of the Todd A. Lee Senior Residences at Kennedy Street, a 38-unit, all-affordable senior community located in the Brightwood Park neighborhood of Ward 4. All 38 apartments are for residents who are 55 or older and earn no more than 50 percent of the area median income. “The Todd A. Lee Senior Residences embody our DC values and represent the importance of having safe and affordable homes for our seniors to age in place, in the communities they know and love,” said Mayor Bowser. “Todd’s legacy will live on through the many families he helped stay in DC, through the innovative programs he created, and now through these beautiful homes for our seniors.” The Todd A. Lee Senior Residences are a result of a solicitation to transform vacant land into affordable housing by the DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) who also provided a $7.4 million loan from th...

First Family Attends Zion Baptist Church

The First Family attended the historic Zion Baptist Church today in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The church was founded in 1864 by African Americans who migrated to Washington from Fredericksburg, VA and is currently pastored by Rev. Keith Byrd, Sr. who employed the congregation today to "be a source of hope." Dr. King's 'Letter From a Birmingham Jai l' was recited to the parishoners while the Sunday program featured a picture of Dr. King on the cover along with the words "I Have A Dream". The First Family attending church service Sunday at Zion Baptist Church.  Official White House photo. The First Family is known to visit area DC churches.  Churches the First Family have visited in our area include the 19th Street Baptist Church, Allen Chapel A.M.E., Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, Shiloh Baptist, the National Cathedral,  St. John's Episcopal Church, and Evergreen Chapel at Camp David.