The LuLac Edition #3972, December 31st, 2018

RESURRECTION CITY @ 50

Martin Luther King Junior wanted to build on the gains made by the Civil Rights movement of the 60s and shiner a light on poverty in America. In particular, King wanted people to see the inequality of economics. The poor in the deep south in the 1960s was not the only segment of black America, hell all America that were impoverished. The plan was for King to highlight this in another march on Washington. His death in April did not stop the effort. But because the main driving force was gone, the end result was not as impactful as hoped for. That stated, the Poor People’s campaign was a wake up call to many Americans who never knew of the suffering going on in their own land of plenty.



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.'"
The Campaign might be a mere footnote in history. But the significance of it was that all American’s in poverty, across all racial lines was recognized as a serious issue. While poverty has not yet been fully eliminated and there is still great economic imbalance in this country, the Campaign from 1968 was a noble start.
This past year, begging the question about how much we might have fixed poverty in half a century, another march was held in D.C.

(Time, wikipedia, AP, LuLac archives)