Ben Chavis, Black Clergy and Civil Rights Leaders Join OWS

African American clergy and Civil Rights leaders officially join Occupy Wall Street movements Wednesday morning after they make an official announcement at the National Press Club.

Give me some of that old time religion

This was my initial reaction to reading the above press release. My second reaction was: It's about time for our much revered - and recently much maligned - church to become relevant again.

After enduring 12 months of hearing sordid details regarding Bishop Eddie Long and his mega church debacle, it's about time that our church leaders direct their leadership, energies, resources and congregations to a more righteous mission.

The greedy, avarice and corrupt shenanigans of the one percenters have wrecked havoc on the nation's middle-class and is decimating the black middle-class. For example, just read these three headlining stories of today:

Almost half in U.S. are poor or low income

Six Waltons have more have more wealth than the bottom 30% of Americans

U.S. CEO pay jumps minimum of 27% last year

Here's more of the featured story:

Occupy Wall Street has taken on the same political importance the Tea Party did soon after Barack Obama's election. The 99 percenters of the Occupy Movement are pro-employee. And even though the economy has antagonized the American workforce, President Obama may have found staunch supporters in the OWS protesters.

Occupy Wall Street is expanding its base and intensifying its effort by welcoming African American church clergy to join the movement to address income inequality and economic injustice. The new addition of the OWS movement will operate under the banner "Occupy the Dream."

Dr. Jamal Bryant, the new millennium minister known for his no-holds-barred, outspoken styleand Dr. Benjamin Chavis, a civil rights icon with the National Council of Churches will formerly announce "Occupy the Dream" and their roles in the protest on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Chavis and Bryant will join OWS representatives David DeGraw and Shamar Thomas.

With the addition of black church leaders, Occupy Wall Street gets an added boost from the African American church going Christian community---a largely conservative population in the overall demographics of African American voters. For a while now, media and critics have pondered the shortage of African American participation in the OWS movements. read entire story