The Bail Out the People Movement and Rev. Tom Smith from Monumental Baptist Church initiated a demonstration to demand a national moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. An emergency press conference was held the day before to announce the action. The protesters, mainly residents at the Tent City on the Hill, gathered at the historic Freedom Corner and were joined there by antiwar activist, Cindy Sheehan. The march passed by the Mellon Arena until reaching the Mellon Corporation HQ in downtown Pittsburgh, where the protesters formed a picket line and rallied. Many passersby stopped to listen to the message of the protesters, some of them homeless, linking the struggle for jobs with the struggle for housing and other human needs.
Hours before the protest occurred, a discussion took place at the Tent City focused on "Fulfilling King's Dream of a Right to a Job For All" which included the global jobless crisis. Later on in the evening, a discussion was held in the Monumental Baptist Church on the case of Georgia prisoner, Troy Davis, organized by the Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
