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Organized by Martin Luther
King Jr. and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, the Poor People's Campaign addressed the
issues of economic justice and housing for the poor in the United States . Martin Luther King, Jr. said,
“We believe the highest patriotism demands the ending of the war
and the opening of a bloodless war to final victory over racism and
Jobs, income and housing were the main goals of the Poor
People’s Campaign. The campaign would help the poor by dramatizing
their needs, uniting all races under the commonality of hardship
and presenting a plan to start to a solution .
Under the "economic bill of rights," the Poor People's Campaign
asked for the federal government to prioritize helping the poor
with a $30 billion anti-poverty package that included a commitment
to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure and more
low-income housing .
The Poor People’s Campaign was part of the second phase of the
civil rights movement. While the first phase had exposed the
problems of segregation, King hoped to address the "limitations to
our achievements" with a second, broader phase .
Planning for the Poor People’s Campaign began during a five day
retreat on November 27, 1967 in Frogmore, South Carolina .
King told his aids that the SCLC
would have to raise nonviolence to a new level to pressure Congress
into passing an Economic Bill of Rights for the nation’s poor. When
reporters asked King about the campaign’s tactics, he sidestepped
specific details and focused on the moral dimensions of the crisis
The Poor People’s Campaign held firm to the movement’s commitment
to non-violence. “We are custodians of the philosophy of
non-violence,” said Martin Luther King, Jr. at a
press conference. “And it has worked” .
Poverty afflicted a diversity of races, regions and backgrounds.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the
SCLC recruited from Mississippi to Illinois and people of all
walks of life came from across the nation. Most volunteers were
women and many had been involved in other civil rights protests.
The media often discouraged those within the movement who were
committed to non-violence. Instead of focusing on issues of urban
inequality and the interracial efforts concerted to address them,
the media concentrated on specific incidences of violence,
leadership conflicts and protest tactics .
Martin Luther King, Jr. was
assassinated on April 4, 1968. The SCLC and other leaders decided
to continue the campaign in King’s honor. A month later on May 12, 1968, demonstrators began a two-week
protest in Washington, D.C.. The same month
thousands of poor people of all races set up a shantytown known as
“Resurrection City.” The city was closed down in mid-June and the economic bill of rights
was never passed
- ^ Poor People’s Campaign. http://poorpeoplescampaignppc.org/
- ^ a
Burns, Stewart. To The Mountaintop. New York, NY: HarperCollins
Publishers, Inc, 2004.
- ^ Bishop, Jim. The Days of
Martin Luther King, Jr. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons,
- ^ To All Souls. “The ill
fated second phase of the civil rights struggle.” 2008, April 7.
- ^ a
McKnight, Gerald. The last crusade: Martin Luther King, Jr., the
FBI, and the Poor People's Campaign. Boulder, CO: Westview Press,
- ^ Jackson, Thomas. From
Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King and the Struggle
for Economic Justice. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania