Pilgrimage for Jobs and Justice Saturday Nov. 12

[AAPD]

For immediate release:
Rep. Elijah Cummings to join march for jobs along the proposed Red
Line in West Baltimore November 12

West Baltimore congregations and community groups, organized by
BRIDGE, are planning a Pilgrimage for Jobs and Justice along the
proposed rapid transit Red Line, West Baltimore portion. Walkers begin
at Edmondson Avenue and Cooks Lane and will end at noon at the West
Baltimore MARC commuter rail station at Franklin and Smallwood
Streets.

Representative Elijah Cummings will address the crowd in a stop at the
Edmondson Village Shopping Center at 9:00. Staff from the office of
Senator Ben Cardin will listen to testimony at a field hearing at
St.Bernardine Church Hall at 10:00.

The three-mile walk will end by 11:30 at the West Baltimore MARC
commuter rail station, for food and celebration at the farmer's
market, where a representative from the White House will address the
crowd.

BRIDGE, congregation-based organization for social justice, has
lobbied for jobs and community input in the proposed Red Line
development. Speeches along the way will address the need for job
training and opportunity in West Baltimore, improved public
transportation, and community planning to heal the damage done to the
neighborhood by the failed highway “road to nowhere.” Speakers will
also address the legacy of segregation that has marked Baltimore's
neighborhoods and continues to limit African Americans' access to
jobs, particularly in the construction industry. Speakers will call
for federal spending on infrastructure and job creation.

The Pilgrimage is organized by BRIDGE and its 30 member congregations,
among them Wayland Baptist Church, First Unitarian Church, St. Vincent
de Paul Catholic Church, St. Matthew's United Methodist, and Ascension
Lutheran, and supported by the Edmondson Village Community
Association, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1300, AFSCME, Better
Jobs-Better Baltimore, national organizations PolicyLink, T4America,
Transportation Equity Network, The Leadership Conference on Civil and
Human Rights, and Building One America.

For more information:
David Casey, BRIDGE executive director, 443-857-0831
or Maureen Daly, press coordinator, 443-286-4731