---

Housing Day Front Page
August 2003

---

Bushville Updates:

8/26-Poor People's Right to Housing March Photos:

8/25-Poor People's March Demands Bushville Resurrection:

August 25 Press Conference: Resurrect Bushville! Ethal (WEAP), Cheri (KWRU), Debra (Friends & Residents)

On Monday August 25 organizers held a press conference to demand that the Park Police allow Bushville to reconvene. Cheri Honkala, spokesperson for the March and Executive Director of KWRU, along with other PPERHC groups and local allies to the Campaign, cited concerns beyond the closing of the city. Specifically, the police did not merely arrest the protesters, but instead woke up protesters throughout the night with flashlights and high beams from squad cars. From midnight to 7:00 AM, protesters were harassed and kept awake. The police also removed and have not returned a 30 by 60 foot American flag and other protest equipment.

8/24-Police arrest over a dozen campers, shut down Bushville:
After a night of police harassment, Park Police shut down Bushville and shut down the camp. The camp was shut down at about 7:30 AM on Sunday morning, only one day after the week-long camp had started. All arrested campers have been released. The camp has moved to St. Stephen's Church, and Bushville will move to a new site. The week's activities, including the Housing March, will continue as planned.

8/24-Night one:
The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) marched from Mississippi to Bushville Tent City in DC. Yesterday the marchers arrived in DC, joining the anniversary of the March on Washington and setting up Bushville in the place of Dr. King's Resurrection City 35 years ago. The Park Police threatened to arrest Bushville protesters, but as of 3:30 AM no arrests were made.

Despite a well-coordinated and early submission of permits by the PPERHC for Bushville, the Park Police refused to issue permits for the duration of the PPEHRC’s week-long nonviolent tent city to protest an end to poverty. Instead the police issued a 13-hour permit, ending at 11:59 PM on the first night of Bushville. Park Police threatened arrests starting at the 11:59 deadline, claiming that the space needed to be cleared for an NFL event that is planned to start a week after the final day of Bushville.

Marchers from PPERHC groups from California to Florida to Ohio and Pennsylvania arrived and set up camp. Since the PPEHRC is made up of groups organizing the poor and led by the poor, marchers were from all ages, races, occupations and regions of America. Grandparents, parents and children set up the city together joined by labor and human rights allies of the Campaign. The camp included a Statue of Liberty, signs calling for an end to poverty and a 30 by 60 foot American flag.

Just before the 11:59 deadline, marchers formed hand-in-hand around the flag and sang together. Inside the ring of singing marchers, volunteers for civil disobedience quietly sat in the center of the flag – prepared to resist police efforts to silence the voices of the poor. Marchers continued to sing, but police had not yet arrived. Camera and video crews taped the marchers, framed by the large flag in the shadows of the Capitol and Washington Monument.

At about 12:30 Park Police drove to the protest sight. The marchers kept singing as the police entered Bushville. At first it was unclear if there would be immediate arrests. Meetings between Bushville organizers and the police were held. Police informed the organizers that arrests would occur only once the media had left the site. Thus beginning a three-hour standoff that continued until at least 3:30 AM. The police parked cars outside of the tent city, but entered the site every hour to wake up sleeping marchers with flashlights and high beams from squad cars. At 3:30 the police left the site, but organizers were unsure if the police planned to return.

Regardless of arrests, organizers plan to remain in Washington to hold events throughout the week, including the August 26 Right to Housing March.