


It was 1967, and a disheartened Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., felt uncertain about his next move. We don’t always picture great leaders in this way. Looking back at the accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement, it’s easy to assume Dr. King and the other leaders knew their way forward at all times. However, before any actions are taken, things were far from clear.
The Black community was divided over Dr. King’s non-violent approach. There had been numerous urban riots recently, and Dr. King’s support among the middle class was eroding.
Following the riots, Congress leaned toward more “law and order” legislation. Many labeled any Black protestors as “outside agitators.”
President Johnson, who had been King’s ally, felt betrayed by Dr. King’s remarks against the Vietnam War. Dr. King’s speeches connected domestic racism with the attitudes that shaped our foreign policy. Martin no longer had the President’s ear.
Additionally, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover claimed that Communists had infiltrated Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. Hoover launched a campaign to tarnish Dr. King’s reputation and “remove King from the national scene.”
Despite all these challenges, what motivated Dr. King to rise above confusion and despair?
What reignited his commitment to justice and allowed him to keep going?
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In 1967, Civil Rights lawyer Marian Wright took Senator Bobby Kennedy to see the face of real poverty in the Mississippi Delta. Senator Kennedy was beyond upset by what he saw – children with swollen bellies, families living on dirt floors with barely a shelter over their heads, no running water, and no sanitation. How could this be happening in America? Senator Kennedy told Marian that she should get Dr. King to bring the poor people to Washington. He said that the lawmakers were out of touch and needed to see the depths and extent of poverty and hunger in America.
Marian did just that. She went to Dr. King and told him what Bobby Kennedy had said: Bring the poor people to Washington, and BING! A light bulb went on andDr. King knew his next steps. Even with the great changes of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Act, Dr. King had begun to see that piecemeal reform wasn’t enough. He believed we needed to re-organize society and re-distribute wealth. Nothing short of a fundamental re-organization of the American economy, he said, could safeguard the promise of a civilized society. Dr. King wanted a radical transformation of the Civil Rights Movement, and this could be the first step.
Dr. King saw the possibility of a glorious movement of people of all colors – African, European, Asian, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans. Together, they would pressure Congress to create an economic bill of rights, including a guaranteed income for every American to alleviate poverty regardless of race. Dr. King declared, “People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, 'We are here; we are poor; we don't have any money; you have made us this way ... and we've come to stay until you do something about it.'" With this vision, the Poor People’s Campaign was born!
Dr. King didn’t feel the campaign would be asking for something for nothing. He saw that this country was built by people who hadn’t always received fair compensation for their work. Besides, the government subsidized the rich at every turn. Why not subsidize the common American, too?
Little did Dr. King know that he was organizing his last demonstration. His tragic assassination on April 4, 1968, ended his participation in the Poor People’s March on Washington. Others carried on his dream with very limited success. Rev. Abernathy and leaders from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and other organizations constructed Resurrection City, or the City of Hope, on 15 acres near Washington DC’s reflecting pool. At its height, the City of Hope housed over 3000 people.
One of the few bright spots of the Campaign occurred when on the fourth week of the campaign, May 31st, Marian Wright brought 15 lobbyists from Resurrection City to speak at a committee meeting. Without any prepared statements, a multicultural group of Americans spoke from the heart about their survival in their hometown and cities and their pathetic inadequacies. The session was lowkey, but the stories impacted the assembled lawmakers. That day, the tent city residents had put a human face on the politics of hunger and depravation.
However, that day’s news centered on the angry demonstration outside the Supreme Court building. Hispanic and Native Americans protested Congress’s decision to prohibit Indians from net fishing in their traditional fishing grounds. Five windows were broken, and as so often happens, the media focused on the most sensational news.
But that impromptu Senate hearing of City of Hope residents had its impact. Eventually, Senator George McGovern supported efforts that prompted the Department of Agriculture to sharply expand the food stamp program and increase funding for child nutrition.
It was indicative of the great odds faced by the Poor People’s Campaign that it required a massive lobbying campaign and several more years of legislative work to force federal authorities even to consider easing malnutrition among the nation’s children.
Despite its failures, the Poor People’s Campaign did call attention to our country’s poverty and its causes. Currently, over 41 million people in over 22 million households receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance from the federal SNAP program.
Dr. King was not a perfect hero who never got discouraged. But, even when he felt defeated, he got up and continued on. In his 1964 Novel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Dr. King said, "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."
May his strength be our inspiration.
You may reprint this article with proper credit: Written by Sue O’Halloran at www.SusanOHalloran.com