The Unfulfilled Dream

"WE MUST SEE NOW THAT THE EVILS OF RACISM, ECONOMIC
EXPLOITATION AND MILITARISM ARE ALL TIED TOGETHER...YOU CAN’T
REALLY GET RID OF ONE WITHOUT GETTING RID OF THE OTHERS...THE
WHOLE STRUCTURE OF AMERICAN LIFE MUST BE CHANGED."

—The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., May 1967

I never met Martin Luther King, Jr. I was only 14 when he was murdered (perhaps by our own government). However, I later worked with many people who were his friends...so called foot soldiers of the movement. So although we never met, he influenced me. I think he influenced our nation, helping us reach for a higher morality and better society. He was a human, and like us all continued to grow and evolve throughout his life. I think he was really maturing and carrying the movement forward when he began the poor people's campaign. Today I want to look at the dream which has yet to be realized, and the new effort to revive the poor people's campaign.

The Poor People's Campaign was created fifty years ago on December 4, 1967, by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to address the issues of unemployment, housing shortages for the poor, and the impact of poverty on the lives of millions of Americans. Unlike earlier efforts directed toward helping African Americans gain civil rights and voting rights, SCLC and its leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., now addressed issues that impacted all who were poor regardless of racial background. 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, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, movement leaders debated whether to go forward with the planned demonstration. His widow, Coretta, and a cadre of black ministers, including the Revs. Ralph Abernathy and Jesse Jackson, decided they would pick up where King had left off and that the Poor People's March on Washington would go forward. 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.

"We come with an appeal to open the doors of America to the almost 50 million Americans who have not been given a fair share of America's wealth and opportunity, and we will stay until we get it," Abernathy said as he led the way for demonstrators.

A week later, protestors erected a settlement of tents and shacks on the National Mall where they camped out for six weeks. Jackson became mayor of the encampment, which was called Resurrection City. "You know, what I remember I suppose the most about it was that we set the tents up at the foot of Lincoln's memorial," he says. "It seemed to rain without ceasing and became muddy and people were hurt, and we were still traumatized by Dr. King's assassination. Then while in the Resurrection City, Robert Kennedy was killed." Conditions were miserable. The demonstrators were discouraged and disheartened, says Jackson, so he tried to give them hope through words. "I am. Somebody," he told protestors. "I am. God's child. I may not have a job, but I am somebody."

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91626373

The march was 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.

Listening to Dr King's speeches is perhaps the best way to understand his effect on people and the society. In his own words, with his powerful voice...
(text provided for most of them)

The Three Evils –
“We are now experiencing the coming to the surface of a triple prong sickness” was how MLK framed the problem that “has been lurking within our body politic from its very beginning.” Identifying “the sickness of racism, excessive materialism, and militarism” and considering the three problems as the “plaque of western civilization.”
https://www.scribd.com/doc/134362247/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-The-Three-Evi...
(text of the speech)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8d-IYSM-08 (43 min speech))

The Other America
http://www.gphistorical.org/mlk/mlkspeech/mlk-gp-speech.pdf
He gave this speech again about a month later at Stanford University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRI5W95cI4A (48 min)

Where do we go from here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whkvt3uLblA (1.1 hour)

...and perhaps the most famous. Here's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. giving the "I Have a Dream" speech during the Civil Rights rally on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.
https://www.archives.gov/files/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARvrvJV4th4 (33 min)

The Letter from the Birmingham Jail has much meaning to me. Here it is in print and read aloud. http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html
this clip starts with the published statement by eight fellow clergymen that prompted King's response. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Y-64GJT8E (57 min)

Why I am opposed to the Vietnam war (42 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyE4eo_leX8
His original text is here -
http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/mlk-sermon-why-i-am-oppose...
The "Beyond Vietnam" speech was delivered on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his death. (with scrolling text)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92SljHNwEqE (52 min)

I have been to the mountain top...MLK's last public speech -
http://www.speeches-usa.com/Transcripts/023_king.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDl84vusXos (43 min)

There is much more to explore and the archives are a great resource for anyone who has an interest in Dr. King http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive

(As an aside, I know the pictures are not great quality, but they are rare images which I collected from individuals here in Alabama)

We continue to face the same challenges today with the added issue of environmental degradation.

Racism is still alive and well

Here is one small example (as if all the shootings, imprisonment, and so on wasn't enough)
In nearby Carterville, GA a group of mainly black kids rented an Air b&b in a primarily white neighborhood to celebrate someone's 21st birthday. Shaun King tells the story. https://theintercept.com/2018/01/04/cartersville-georgia-ounce-marijuana...

It is clearly systemic - just look at our education (and prison) system
http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/why-americas-school-funding-crisi...

and slavery has morphed as well...

The new slavery of student debt...
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/student-debt-slavery-bankrolling-finan...
https://ellenbrown.com/2018/01/05/student-debt-slavery-ii-time-to-level-...

If anyone doubts our horrid military actions consider our use of depleted uranium ammunition...kills today, tomorrow, and thousands of years from now.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/23/why-did-the-us-use-depleted-uran...
https://journal-neo.org/2016/02/27/armor-piercing-toxic-shocking-the-us-...

...or our use of drones with all their civilian casualties.
https://www.rt.com/usa/drones-death-casualties-civilian-558/

In a wide ranging discussion which touches on the Poor Peoples Campaign, Chris Hedges and Charles Derber, Author and Sociologist, discusses the failings of the American left (24 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C4aCCihy7s

So how do we address Racism, Militarism, Materialism, and Environmental Degradation?

Here's an idea...

"AS OUR SOCIAL FABRIC IS STRETCHED THIN BY WIDENING INCOME
INEQUALITY, POLITICIANS CRIMINALIZE THE POOR, FAN THE FLAMES
OF RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA TO DIVIDE THE POOR, AND STEAL FROM
THE POOR TO GIVE TAX BREAKS TO THE RICH AND BUDGET INCREASES
TO A BLOATED MILITARY."
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II

https://thinkprogress.org/rev-barber-why-america-needs-a-new-poor-people...

"IMMIGRANTS, MUSLIMS, HOMELESS PEOPLE, AND YOUTH ARE
UNDER ATTACK. THE POOR ARE FACING SEVERE CUTS TO BASIC
SOCIAL SERVICES. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE LIVING WITHOUT CLEAN
WATER AND SANITATION SERVICES. VOTING RIGHTS ARE BEING
SUPPRESSED AND WARS ARE BEING WAGED ACROSS THE WORLD AND
INTENSIFYING. THESE AND MANY OTHER CRISES MEAN IT IS URGENT
WE BUILD A POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN TODAY."
Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis

1 hour announcement at the National press Club (starts about 5 min into the clip)

As the 50th anniversary of MLK Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign approaches, organizers want to take up King's mantle to "unite the bottom of this country, to bring about real change, to shift the narrative that is demonizing people for the problems they're facing and to build power from the bottom up," says campaign co-chair Dr. Liz Theoharis. “... in the Spring of 2018, as we reach the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King, as we reach the 50th anniversary of the launch of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign, that what we need today, in these times, is a new Poor People's Campaign, and a national call for moral revival. That is on. That is happening and people across the country, in the thousands, are getting involved and signed up to be a part of something really big.” (20 min video or text) http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=767&...

Rev. Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, evangelical minister and director of the School for Conversion in Durham, North Carolina, explain the new campaign. (video and text)
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/1/9/rev_barber_ex_page_to_segregationist
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/martin-luther-king-jr-s-poor-peoples-c...

Ten reasons to revive the poor peoples campaign...
https://www.thenation.com/article/10-reasons-to-revive-the-1968-poor-peo...

The report is a 30 page pdf with interesting statistics and information like the graphs below. https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PPC-Report-Dr...

The more things change, the more they remain the same. So here we are fifty years after Dr. King's murder trying to deal with the these same big social issues. Will the new poor peoples campaign be the answer? I would argue there is no one answer, but I certainly think the approach of uniting these big issues into one campaign is at least an answer, an attempt, an effort to address these great challenges. I like the addition of environmental preservation into the social movement.

I wish there was an educational element - teach-ins and the like - because most US citizens remain unaware. The corporate media isn't interested in providing information...only generating profit...and so the people are ill informed. The oligarchy is happy with the status quo. They own the politicians. So we face a great challenge. But I remember how things were in Montgomery when Dr. King was leading the movement. There are always dangers when challenging the power structure. So the question becomes - do we as a nation have the courage to join together in a new movement to work toward the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream?