DETROIT, Mich. -- Former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards called it a "moral shame" that 37 million Americans live in poverty, but committed to lifting them out by working with ACORN to raise wages and supporting Sen. Barack Obama for president.

"We can walk together and end the great shame of poverty in the United States," Edwards told nearly 2,000 ACORN members Monday, June 23, the final day of  the group's National Convention at the Cobo Center. Edwards serves as chair of the ACORN-affiliated "Half in Ten" campaign to cut poverty in half in the U.S. within 10 years.

Edwards called the upcoming presidential election one of the most important elections in American history, telling ACORN members that "everything we believe in is at stake this fall."  To the organizers in the crowd, he said, "There's one person who's been an organizer and who needs you to organize for him now, and that person is Barack Obama."

Edwards said that government officials and wealthy corporations keep themselves on one side of a wall, with Americans who struggle to pay their bills every month on the other side.

"John McCain wants to build that wall higher," Edwards said. "But Barack Obama will take it down."

Edwards then led the crowd in one of ACORN's favorite chants, "Yes we can."

Immediately following Edwards' speech, ACORN members took to the streets, marching with banners, signs, bullhorns and whistles to the downtown headquarters of National City Bank where they filled the lobby and strolled up and down the sidewalk, demanding that National City provide borrowers affordable loan modifications.

Upon receiving word that the bank's district manager was on his way to negotiate in the park across the street, ACORN members left the bank and rallied outside, hearing the story of an ACORN member who had been preyed upon by National City Bank.

"Like many of you, I was a victim of predatory lending," said Georgia Dunn of Cleveland, Ohio. "I was told I could refinance from my interest rate of 12.5 percent, but at the end of the day, I'm still stuck with a high interest rate loan and I lost four thousand dollars."

Some ACORN members remained for negotiations while the rest headed for buses and home, chanting "We'll be back" and "the people united will never be defeated."

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