1968 Poor People's Campaign / Resurrection City

[limpyhobbler]

Last edited Sun Jan 20, 2013, 05:36 PM - Edit history (1)

In May 1968, one month after King was killed, 7000 peaceful protesters set up a tent and plywood encampment on the National Mall in Washington DC, calling it "Resurrection City."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=AP71gUdg8qQ

The Goals of the Poor People's Campaign, 1968
...
1. A meaningful job at a living wage for every employable citizen.
2. A secure and adequate income for all who cannot find jobs or for whom employment is inappropriate.
3. Access to land as a means to income and livelihood.
4. Access to capital as a means of full participation in the economic life of America.
5. Recognition by law of the right of people affected by government programs to play a truly significant role in determining how they are designed and carried out.
...
1. Recommit the Federal Government to the Full Employment Act of 1946 and legislate the immediate creation of at least one million socially useful career jobs in public service;
2. Adopt the pending housing and urban development act of 1968;
3. Repeal the 90th Congress's punitive welfare restrictions in the 1967 Social Security Act...;
4. Extend to all farm workers the right -- guaranteed under the National Labor Relations Act - to organize agricultural labor unions;
5. Restore budget cuts for bilingual education, Head Start, summer jobs, Economic Opportunity Act, Elementary and Secondary Education Acts.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/sources/ps_poor.html

The Poor People’s Campaign was motivated by a desire for economic justice: the idea that all people should have what they need to live. King and the SCLC shifted their focus to these issues after observing that gains in civil rights had not improved the material conditions of life for many African Americans. The Poor People’s Campaign was a multiracial effort aimed at alleviating poverty regardless of race...

Dr. King wanted to bring poor people to Washington D.C., forcing politicians to see them and think about their needs: "We ought to come in mule carts, in old trucks, any kind of transportation people can get their hands on. 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.'"...

Witnessing the anger that led to riots in Newark (12–17 July 1967) and Detroit (23–27 July 1967), King released a report in August (titled "The Crisis in America's Cities&quot which called for disciplined urban disruption, particularly in Washington:

To dislocate the functioning of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot because it can be longer-lasting, costly to society but not wantonly destructive. Moreover, it is more difficult for government to quell it by superior force. Mass civil disobedience can use rage as a constructive and creative force

...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People's_Campaign

[Warren Stupidity]

1. We have made negative progress on all of those issues.

40 years of retreat. When does the pendulum swing?

[limpyhobbler]

2. I guess not until people demand it.