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Resurrection City was a temporary shantytown constructed at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It housed the citizens of the Poor People’s March on Washington, which sought to place the problems of the poor at the seat of the federal government. The campaign was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) last major initiative as it attempted to broaden the Civil Rights Movement to include an economic plank for all poor people regardless of race. Despite the death of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., the SCLC under the leadership of its new president, the Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy, proceeded with the Poor People’s Campaign. Approximately five weeks after King’s assassination, Resurrection City was constructed for a multitude of protesters. The protest march for the poor departed from the Lorraine Motel, the site of Martin Luther King’s assassination, on May 2, 1968. Led by Coretta Scott King, King’s widow, teams of mules demonstrating the desperate plight of the rural poor pulled wagons full of people through Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama, as they proceeded to the nation’s capital. Tens of thousands gathered at Resurrection City. On May 12, 1968, Coretta Scott King led the National Welfare Rights Organization’s Mother’s Day mobilization. Staging a series of sit-ins and demonstrations at various government agencies, the protesters brought their concerns to the nation’s attention. Protesters conducted a spirited demonstration on June 19, which was organized by Sterling Tucker and led by Abernathy and Coretta Scott King. However, torrential rains, conflicts between residents, and the June 6 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy took their toll on Resurrection City. On June 24, 1968, Resurrection City came to an ignominious finale when Capitol Police cleared the site. While the Poor People’s Campaign secured a few concessions from federal agencies, it cannot be considered successful. President Johnson ignored it and Congress closed its governmental coffers to the poor people’s economic demands as the Vietnam War sapped the federal tax base.

Linda T. Wynn