On Nov. 27, 2013, a Madison-based liberal advocacy group used a mass email to promote protests that were planned against Walmart stores for two days later -- Black Friday.

The demonstrations aimed to "expose Wal-Mart’s shameful labor practices and support workers," according to One Wisconsin Now, which then made this claim:

"The Walton family , which owns Wal-Mart, controls a fortune equal to the wealth of the bottom 42 percent of Americans combined."

That reminded us of a March 2011 claim by filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore.

He said in a Madison speech that 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined, a statement we rated True . Based on online hits, it became one of our most popular fact-checks ever.

So we wondered about the Walmart claim.

Wealth, notincome

In the days before and after Black Friday, leaders no less prominent than President Barack Obama and Pope Francis decried the extent of income disparity in the United States and around the world. Obama called the growing income gap a "defining challenge of our time." The pope said that while the earnings of a minority "are growing exponentially, so, too, is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few."

Walmart, of course, is a big target.

According to Forbes , as of May 2013 the international retailer had $469 billion in sales and 2.2 million employees, including 1.3 million in the United States. The corporation has been criticized for low wages; and in December 2012, PolitiFact National rated as Mostly True a claim that more