On Monday, September 12, 2016, Stand Up KC joined other social justice groups in 30 state capitals for a “Moral Revival” — that is, to push for public policies that aid ordinary workers, such as living wages and adequate healthcare. Protesters descended on Jefferson City from Kansas City and elsewhere, flooding the halls and chambers of the capitol building.

Stand Up KC is an organization of working families, students, and faith leaders fighting for union rights and a $15 minimum wage for Kansas Citians.

The group vowed to “shut down the capitol” on Facebook, writing:

From across the state, we converge on Jefferson City with a simple demand for lawmakers: Stop undermining Missouri’s state motto and “Let the Welfare of the People Be the Supreme Law!” Stop condemning Kansas City’s working families to poverty by blocking out $13 minimum wage increase, which we passed last year! Halt your anti-democratic and racist efforts to strip us of our voting rights by putting voter ID on the November election! Cease attacks on our unions! And allow Medicaid to expand and give working people and the poor the healthcare each of us deserves!

Declaring that “a moral Missouri puts people before profits and the collective good before the interests of a few,” Stand Up KC used the name Myrna De Los Santos, a Kansas City woman who died suddenly in the first week of September, as a rallying cry in Jefferson City.

“Myrna’s death was heartbreaking,” a fast-food worker named Fran said in a speech today. “And it could have been prevented. She was only 49 years old. She died too soon because McDonald’s didn’t pay her enough to treat her diabetes; because Missouri’s lawmakers denied her the raise and access to health care that could’ve saved her life.”

“Myrna was a fellow McDonalds worker and leader with Stand Up KC who was willing to do whatever it takes to win economic and racial equality for all,” said Terrence Wise, a Stand Up KC leader who was recently invited to the White House to introduce Barack Obama before the president’s speech on worker rights.

The protest is expected to last all day.

For more from the author, subscribe and follow or read his books.