THIS is what the 1% does NOT want to see this Spring & Summer.

[99th_Monkey]

The Poor People's Campaign of 1967
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[1] King 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 poverty”.[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People's_Campaign

Their immediate aim was to secure federal legislation ensuring full employment and promoting the construction of
low-income housing to raise the quality of life of the nation's impoverished citizens.

The SCLC planned a nationwide march on Washington on April 22, 1968, to focus the nation's attention on this issue and
particularly to pressure Congress to pass legislation to address the employment and housing issues. Unlike earlier
marches, SCLC leaders planned the creation of Resurrection City, a giant tent city on the Mall in Washington, D.C.,
where demonstrators would remain until their demands were met. When Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis on
April 4, 1968, movement leaders debated whether to go forward with the planned demonstration. They chose to
continue the march with King's lieutenant, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, as its new leader. The march date was postponed
to May 12, 1968, though a few hundred people arrived in Washington on the original date. The first week, May 12-29,
brought a wave of nearly 5,000 demonstrators. During the second week Resurrection City was completed.

The protestors, people from a wide range of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds--Native Americans from
reservations, Latinos from the Southwest, impoverished whites from West Virginia, as well as rural and urban blacks--
came together and spread the message of the campaign to various federal agencies. They also disrupted life in
Washington to try and force the government to respond. At its peak, the number of protestors reached nearly 7,000
but still far short of the expectation of 50,000 people.

The march was also marred by weather and leadership divisions. An unusual downpour of rain made the ground
turn to mud causing the tents to weaken, and eventually forcing people to leave. Tension among the demonstrators
themselves caused violent outbreaks and undermined the effectiveness of PPC leadership. The assassination of
Senator Robert Kennedy, a presidential aspirant and one of the PPC's principal supporters in Congress, on June 5, 1968,
sealed the fate of the campaign. Resurrection City closed two weeks later on June 19, 1968.
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/poor-peoples-campaign-december-4-1967-june-19-1968

And the negative impact of the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy illustrate why OWS &
Occupy DC must remain as "leaderless" as possible.

[arcane1]

1. Wow, this is the first I've ever heard of this!

I love that last photo!!

[99th_Monkey]

7. Glad you like. I wonder if it's been air-brushed out of the history textbooks.

I hear they've been busily re-writing history in Texas textbooks for decades, and for
some odd reason most textbooks are published in Texas.

[GopperStopper2680]

2. DU Rec

Great Post!

[99th_Monkey]

4. thanks. nt

[obey]

3. And do you think that President Obama wants to see that outside the White House too?

Or are you counting him in the 1%, which I suppose would be fair.

Oh ya, '68 was a great year. Poor peoples march, Chicago Democratic convention, RFK,MLK killed, unrest and protests in the streets.

Richard Milhous Nixon elected 37th President.

What a year. I guess you had to be there.

[99th_Monkey]

5. Obama ASKED us to "make him" do the right thing, remember?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/go-out-and-make-me-do-it_b_281631.html

So Occupy is merely obliging Obama, and petitioning him to convict the financial terrorists & clean up the Wall St. mess.

[truedelphi]

9. There were horrible tragedies going on throughout the calendar year

1968. But the fact is the resonance from what the young people of the time were undertaking, and those who were enlightened and older, still makes waves in our current day culture.

In my day, few people talked to their parents about sex. Young women were required to wear hats and gloves if going out and looking for a job.

I remember sitting at a lunch table in a hospital cafeteria in Chicago in 1969, and women getting up and leaving the vicinity - because I was white and the two women with me at the table were black. All three of us were in nursing uniforms. That wouldn't happen in any hospital cafeteria in Chicago now.

I remember a not so distant talk with a young man at a Kinko's. And he made some snarky remark about how what happened in the sixties didn't matter.

i mean, there is this guy with hair down to his ass, tatts covering his arms, piercings in his face, working a nine to five job and being considered for the position of store manager. And he thinks things hadn't changed from what happened back in the fifties or sixties?

[northoftheborder]

6. I remember all that well, except I don't remember the tents on the mall.

[StarsInHerHair]

8. until poverty is understood to be a result of "pecking order" & predates the human species

I don't think poverty will ever be rid of; FDR tried with Social Security, Baby Boomers tried too, & now X & Millenials. But dogs, wolves, chickens, monkeys, etc. MOST ALL have pecking order, some get first access & all they can eat, then the next rank, then the next.... This is the root of class in human societies as well. Start there & maybe a greater reduction of poverty will happen.