National Watch Night Service for Love, Justice & Civil Rights w/ Poor People's Campaign

National Watch Night Service for Love, Justice & Civil Rights

Host: Poor People's Campaign

Date & Time: New Year's Eve on December 31, 2021 @ 2 PM PT (5 PM ET)

Livestream; https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/livestream

Join the Poor People's Campaign this New Year's Eve for a Watch Night service to declare we will not stop organizing, mobilizing, standing for love and justice, and uplifting the rights of poor and low-income people in this society.

On New Year’s Eve in 1862 — at the height of the Civil War — slaves, freedmen, and other abolitionists waited with anticipation for the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation on New Year’s Day. The proclamation meant that the Union Army was finally committed to freedom for the slaves living under the Confederacy, and eventually led to defeat for the whole slave-owning class.

On Watch Night, the PPC calls out for organizing against a system that allows a few
to profit from the poverty and suffering of many. We must come together to rise up
against voter suppression, BBB obstruction, poverty, systemic racism & xenophobia,
health care inequities, and ecological devastation.

Instead, we must mobilize for a moral agenda that includes economic justice with the passing of BBB social programs, equality in education, health care access justice, environmental justice, and voting rights & civil rights with equal protection under the law for all persons.


ABOUT: Watch Night

"On the night of December 31, 1862, enslaved and free African Americans gathered, many in secret, to ring in the new year and await news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. Just a few months earlier, on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the executive order that declared enslaved people in the rebelling Confederate States legally free. However, the decree would not take effect until the clock struck midnight at the start of the new year. The occasion, known as Watch Night or “Freedom's Eve,” marks when African Americans across the country watched and waited for the news of freedom. Today, Watch Night is an annual New Year’s Eve tradition that includes the memory of slavery and freedom, reflections on faith, and celebration of community and strength."

From: "The Historical Legacy of Watch Night"
National Museum of African American History and Culture,
Smithsonian Museums Washington D.C.
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-watch-night