About 20 residents of Bowling Green will be at the state Capitol Monday, May 21 speaking out for the Kentucky Poor People’s campaign.
Reverend Megan Huston is senior minister at First Christian Church in Bowling Green. She’s one of three Kentucky coordinators for the Poor People’s Campaign, a national effort originally launched in 1968 by Martin Luther King.
Huston says the goal of the campaign is to bring awareness to issues that include mass incarceration, voting rights, immigration, systemic racism and poverty.
“In Kentucky, the Institute on Policy Studies just did some research that reflects that 46 percent of Kentuckians are poor or low-income," said Huston. "That’s two million people.”
She said these issues are affecting our local neighborhoods. Huston says nearly 20 percent of the residents in Warren County lives below the poverty line.
“Forty-seven percent, so nearly half of renters in Bowling Green are paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing, which is not sustainable," said Huston. "People spending more than 30 percent on their housing pretty much become at-risk of becoming homeless.”
Huston said the May 21 march will be the second Monday action this month in Frankfort with participants from Bowling Green. The first one was May 14. The nonviolent direct action is part of '40 Days of Action’ in the ‘National Call for Moral Revival' leading to a march in the nation’s capital in in June.