Women to march to D.C. in Mother’s Day campaign

Women from around the country will join in the Poor People’s March from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., on Mother’s Day weekend.

The 41-mile march is in the tradition of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign and makes demands for jobs, justice and an end to police brutality.

The final stretch of the march will take place on Mother’s Day and will be led by women from the OUR Walmart worker’s rights group and the mothers of victims of police killings.

Mother’s Day is on May 12 this year, the date that Coretta Scott King led the kickoff of the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968.

“We hope to make change so we can better things for everyone,” said Barbara Kauffman of Baltimore. “All type of things are going on that should not be happening, but they are. This march covers a lot of things, not just one area. The rich man gets richer, the poor man gets poorer. We want equality.”

Another march organizer, Kay Adler of Baltimore, said, “I’m a volunteer with the Baltimore All Peoples Congress, also a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Birmingham, Ala., and a member of BRAIV – Black/Red/American Indian Voices. We’re marching from Baltimore to D.C. to accomplish reviving Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream and vision. We are marching for the rights of all people, because if there is no justice, there cannot be any peace.”

Student Zaina Alsous of Raleigh, N.C., plans to march because, “as young people, it’s very important to engage in these powerful mass demonstrations to help carry on the rich organizing legacies that we’ve inherited.”

On May 11, marchers will gather at about 10 a.m. at Biddle Street and North Montford Avenue in Baltimore.

The march steps off at about 11 a.m., with walkers taking Route 1 as far as the University of Maryland for a rally that night.

On May 12, marchers will leave Hyattsville, Md., for D.C., reaching the Justice Department on Pennsylvania Avenue at about 2 p.m. and Freedom Plaza at about 3 p.m.

Marchers will return to Freedom Plaza on May 13 for a demonstration.

The march is endorsed by the AFL-CIO and other labor groups, OUR Walmart, the All Peoples Congress of Baltimore, the Peace House in D.C., and a Occupy groups.