Poor+People's+Campaign

by Sydney, Joharah, Lashé, Moussa, Gregory, Kaiya, and LeAnn Grade 4



In America in the 1960’s there were many issues around poverty. A 1967 government report said that 41% of non-whites lived in poverty. The unemployment rate was twice as high for Blacks as for whites. Dr. King wanted to stop poverty in America by starting a campaign. He organized the Poor People’s campaign to let the world know how important an issue poverty was.

Dr. King’s plan for the Poor People’s Campaign began in 1968. Dr. King called meetings to organize the campaign. The planners and organizers talked about poverty, jobs, healthcare and housing. They wanted to persuade the government to help work on these issues.

While the organizers were planning for the Poor People’s campaign, some sanitation workers from Memphis called Dr. King to ask him if he would help them in their strike. The sanitation workers were striking because they didn’t get paid as much as they should have been. The organizers of the Poor People’s Campaign didn’t want Dr. King to go to Memphis for the sanitation strike because they had a lot of planning to do. Dr. King went to Memphis anyway, because the sanitation workers needed somebody powerful to back them up, and Dr. King thought that not getting paid enough had to do with poverty.

On April 4, 1968, in Memphis Tennessee, Dr. King was assassinated. The night before his assassination he made a speech about the promised land. It sounded as if he knew he was going to get killed. The next evening Dr. King went to the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he was staying for the night. He was walking on the balcony, and somebody on the other side of the motel shot him. All his friends heard a suspicious sound and came running. They saw Dr. King lying down on the balcony. They rushed him to the hospital, and he died an hour later.



After Dr. King’s assassination, his people didn’t give up on Dr. King’s dream to build a Poor People’s campaign. On May 1st, 1968, Resurrection City was created in Washington, DC. Resurrection City was part of the Poor People’s campaign to stop poverty. The organizers helped build tents and A-frame houses made out of blocks of wood. Poor people came from everywhere in America to live in Resurrection City. People got there by cars, and by horses and wagons. Some of them walked. Two weeks after the city was created, two thousand people lived there. Resurrection City had schools, a city hall, a hospital and a thrift store which gave out free clothes. The poor people marched to the Department of Agriculture to get it to help them achieve their goal of getting food for poor people.

There were problems in the Poor People’s campaign. Dr. King had died, and the power of the people changed because their leader was gone. Another issue was that it rained. There were almost six inches of rain. The ground was dirt, and the rain turned it into mud. It was aggravating to live in a valley of mud. Another issue was that during the campaign, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. This was a problem because after Dr. King got shot, the people who were involved on the campaign relied on Robert Kennedy as a leader. People felt discouraged. The Poor People’s Campaign ended with sadness. Policemen surrounded Resurrection City and dragged the people out. They destroyed Resurrection City with bulldozers. It may have been a very sad ending, but the Poor People’s Campaign made a change for the future, and that’s what people were fighting for.

Image sources: http://sfbayview.com/2009/%E2%80%98house-keys-not-handcuffs%E2%80%99-homeless-families-denied-a-home-even-for-their-convergence/ http://www.baldwinstreetgallery.com/Poor_People_Gallery/index.html