The entry of a famed aide to Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, into the escalating battle over Wal-Mart promises to refocus the debate. Mr. Young, who has spent much of his life crusading for civil rights, often from the left, will now chair the steering committee of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group funded by the retailer. Mr. Young reminds Americans that their lower-income neighbors have a right to buy the lowest-price, highest quality goods the market will provide.

Mr. Young is throwing his public relations muscle – he runs a consulting firm that has also helped Nike respond to charges about sweatshops – behind a conclusion others on the left have increasingly been reaching: Wal-Mart is good for poor people. A former Kerry campaign economic adviser, Jason Furman, recently wrote a paper noting that Wal-Mart saved American consumers $263 billion in 2004. The poor benefit most. Wal-Mart’s greatest savings are in groceries, which consume a greater proportion of income in poor households.

Wal-Mart saves households in the bottom income quintile $530 a year, or 6.5% of annual income, on groceries alone. Mr. Furman concludes that “to the degree the anti-Wal-Mart campaign slows or halts the spread of Wal-Mart to new areas, it will lead to higher prices that disproportionately harm lower-income families.” Mr. Young’s advocacy, even despite his consulting business, will illuminate the fact that that there are low-income persons, even here in New York, behind Mr. Furman’s economic analysis, and that real civil rights are at stake.