Activist Willie Baptist in Olympia

author : Maggie Nelson-Poole topic : Poverty rights | Camp Quixote

by Maggie Nelson-Poole

Poverty rights activist Willie Baptist visited St. John’s Episcopal Church on Nov. 1 in order to speak out against poverty and social injustice. Baptist’s experience ranges from working with the homeless, to organizing steelworkers, to scholarly work at Union Theological Seminary, to working at Poverty University, a branch of the Poor Peo-ple’s Economic Human rights campaign.

Baptist talked with Camp Quixote members in the morning and later spoke to a packed hall, followed by questions from the audience. Baptist inspired the audience, speaking of his involvement in organizing the homeless, encouraging people to agitate local governments to become more aware of poverty, and to take action regarding the plight of people in poverty.

Mr. Baptist talked about some of his more personal experiences: Finding a man who froze to death in a chair in the street in Chicago (Willie’s home), where the weather can reach 50 below; breaking into abandoned homes in winter to provide shelter for homeless families, often when some other family had recently been evicted; and orga-nizing homeless encampments.