Review and Reflection on “Freedom Church of the Poor” by Colleen Wessel-McCoy

This is a book I’ve had on my radar for some time. But I often held off on getting because of the price — it’s an expensive soft cover book coming in around $75. I’m not sure why it costs that much, but that’s been the going rate for the book.

Having said that, the book is a good book, especially if you are interested in Martin Luther King, Jr’s Poor People’s Campaign. This book is really a look at the history and impact of the campaign, with a lot of in-depth analysis of the campaign, the people involved, and the strategy and methods that were employed.

What is the foundation of the Poor People’s Campaign? It was really based on what King said about the coming era, “We must not consider it unpatriotic to raise basic questions about our national character…For the evils of racism, poverty and militarism to die, a new set of values must be born. Our economy must become more person-centered than property-centered and profit-centered. Our nation must depend more on its moral power than on its military power.” (Pg. xiii). The same is still true today.

The Poor People’s Campaign kept a focus on the three main “evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism.” (Pg. xv). For King, these three evils were intimately tied together and would fall together.

For King, so much of the campaign is grounded in a theological outlook at the world and humanity. As the author of the book says, “Instead of avoiding the…