The North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign honors the life and legacy of our leader, comrade, mentor, pastor, and friend, Rev. Dr. Nelson Johnson. Rev. Johnson left the physical world on February 9, 2025, but his spirit lives on in the lives of countless individuals and communities across the world. Our hearts are with his partner in the movement, Mrs. Joyce Johnson, former tri-chair of the NC Poor People’s Campaign.
In 2017, the Johnsons were crucial contributors during the planning stages to revive the Poor People’s Campaign that launched officially in 2018 with the 40 Days of Action. Rev. Johnson would go on to become part of the national advisory board for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Rev. Johnson was actually part of the first round of seventeen people arrested in 2013 during the launch of what would become Moral Mondays. The Forward Together-Moral Monday movement that he helped birth became a building block for the NC PPC today.
For those of us in the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, his voice and leadership will ring for as long as we live: “Walk together children, and don’t you get weary!”
