For Immediate Release: Friday, Jan. 16, 2015
Contact: Donna De La Cruz, [email protected] (202) 339-9331

Center for Community Change Fighting to End Poverty

(WASHINGTON)—Here is a statement from Kica Matos, Director of Racial Justice and Immigrant Rights at the Center for Community Change, honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

“In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last book ‘Where Do We Go From Here, Community or Chaos,’ he shared his dreams for America’s future, including the need for everyone to have certain basic rights like a decent job that pays living wages, adequate housing, a good education and safe and sustainable neighborhoods.

Dr. King believed these were realistic goals that could be achieved only if communities and people at the grassroots, including young people, came together and worked to create this new society. While we haven’t yet reached the goals that Dr. King outlined, I truly believe we are on our way because I see the sparks of a growing movement around our country to end poverty and inequality, echoing Dr. King’s ‘Poor People’s Campaign’ to end economic injustice.

Low wage workers have come together to demand better pay, and they’re winning this battle, gaining increases in minimum wage rates. Americans are fighting to end wealth inequality, demanding that laws and regulations favoring big corporations and the wealthy over millions of hardworking men and women be repealed. Formerly incarcerated people and their families are fighting for access to good jobs and housing so they can fully reintegrate into society. And undocumented immigrants are extremely close to gaining the right to remain in this country while they work to become full-fledged citizens.

All these movements are working to protect and expand the rights that Dr. King and others fought so hard for during the Civil Rights era.

Community Change is working toward tackling the many issues that cause poverty in this country. We are convinced that grassroots and social movements can create an economy that’s powered by equity and sustained by fairness.

Dr. King has taught us that while the arc of the moral universe may be long, it only bends toward justice when we work together to make change.”

Kica Matos will be giving the keynote address at the Smithsonian Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Program, being held tonight at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The event will be held from 7:00p to 9:00p. For more information go to www.anacostia.si.edu

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