This paper reviews the literature surrounding Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign, a 1968 initiative organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that represented a significant departure from traditional civil rights activism. Rather than focusing solely on racial equality, the campaign sought to address the broader economic injustices affecting all impoverished Americans — including Black, white Appalachian, Mexican-American, and Native American communities. Drawing on works by McKnight, Hon, Jalata, and Curran, the paper examines how King's evolving ideology, the FBI's opposition, the campaign's ambitious goals, and its ultimate logistical failure shaped the trajectory of the broader social justice movement.
Social reformers recognized very early that the causes for which they sought change — namely equality and equal representation — were seriously stymied by poverty. The condition of poverty unfairly limited individuals in their ability to seek change, as being in a state of poverty leaves one with limited time, energy, and capacity to fight for or even support the social movements that would help the very people struggling for equal rights and representation. Early civil rights organizations recognized the stark connection between poverty and disenfranchisement.
This connection can be seen most clearly through a closer examination of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign. As will be explained, the Poor People's Campaign was a radical departure from traditional civil rights actions, as it expanded the concept of civil rights beyond race to address the social deprivation caused by economic injustice. This paper serves as a brief review of the literature surrounding the Poor People's Campaign, touching on the development of the campaign's ideas and concepts.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), headed by MLK Jr., developed a proposed march on Washington that was nicknamed the Poor People's Campaign and scheduled it for March of 1968. McKnight, in his full-length book on the subject, contends that King's development of ideas surrounding the expansion of the civil rights movement followed his outright condemnation of the Vietnam War and President Johnson's decisions involving it. McKnight argues that:
"King had concluded that America was a sick society unable to be reformed by piecemeal measures. The civil rights leader was convinced that a revolution in values, one ignited by a profound societal reorganization resulting in a redistribution of economic and political power, was essential to redeem the soul of America." (McKnight, 1998, p. 11)
The difference between this action and the historical ideology of the civil rights movement was a shift away from racially driven campaigns toward one that would include all people living in poverty — a clear social justice cause far more encompassing than the movement's previous arguments. McKnight also makes clear that the program represented a departure in tactics for King and the SCLC. Previously, the movement had stressed peaceful actions, but this campaign was remarkably militant in potential — an issue not lost on J. Edgar Hoover, then director of the FBI, who chose to use the Poor People's Campaign as evidence of growing potential for social unrest and racial criminality.
"King was not optimistic about the outcome of this planned campaign in confrontational politics. He knew this was a desperate gamble in domestic brinkmanship, but he was driven to the conclusion that there were no viable alternatives: It was either massive civil disobedience or riots.... The planned Poor People's Campaign became the major front in the FBI's stepped-up campaign to contain the rising tide of black militancy and intensify the bureau's secret war against King." (McKnight, 1998, p. 22)
Despite the official campaign against King and the SCLC, and a generalized fear of the transformation the campaign would bring to Washington, planning continued. Even after King's assassination, the SCLC reiterated his message by continuing to plan and enact the various aspects of the campaign.
The Poor People's Campaign was to include "southern rural and northern ghetto blacks, Appalachian whites, Mexican-Americans, and Native Americans" (McKnight, 1998, p. 4). The plan, drafted primarily by King, was to bring thousands of poor people to Washington and create a camp literally on the doorstep of the government, in an attempt to force congressional reforms that would amount to what King envisioned as an "Economic Bill of Rights" (McKnight, 1998, p. 4). This newly conceived call for social justice would include "sweeping reforms in employment, education, welfare, and housing that President Lyndon B. Johnson's National Advisory Committee of Civil Disorders urged in its 1968 high-priority report to reverse the deepening racial and economic divisions plaguing American society" (McKnight, 1998, p. 4).
These divisions had been evident throughout the historical civil rights movement as elements within society most likely to create further division and continue to support social inequality and disenfranchisement. In short, the Poor People's Campaign was a demonstrative call to challenge the institutions of capitalism that favored some and fully alienated others. Though economic disenfranchisement was an essential element of the civil rights movement, it was not the driving force behind it in the early years. Many had believed that with changes brought about by proposed civil rights laws — the elimination of segregation, the reestablishment of Black voting rights, the elimination of anti-miscegenation laws, and other legal and social reforms — the disenfranchised would then possess the rights needed for full representation and potential success in a capitalistic culture. The realization of how much further the movement would have to go was reflected in the hopes of those who planned the Poor People's Campaign, which challenged the troubling outcomes of capitalism that had produced a very large population of poor people who did not, by any means, have equal opportunity, regardless of law.
By 1967, King had changed his earlier conviction that white racism could be overcome by appealing to the nation's moral conscience through the positive and creative force of Christian love. He was no longer certain that Vietnam War-era America had a moral conscience. In concluding his testimony before a Senate committee that year, King voiced his somber perspective on the country's racial dilemma when he said that "America as a nation has never committed itself to solving the problems of its Negro citizens" (McKnight, 1998, p. 14).
According to King and his followers, the Poor People's Campaign was an expansion of the ideology of social equality to a point where the inception of King's "Dream" could come to pass — where less racial and social strife would occur as more people had the daily capacity to support social progress, rather than fighting over limited resources and being brushed aside as a result of their socioeconomic status. Though King did not live to lead the campaign — he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, just weeks before it was to begin — the SCLC pressed forward, and April 22, 1968 marked the beginning of the campaign (Hon, 1997, pp. 186–187).
Linda Childers Hon recognizes that the Poor People's Campaign was one of many SCLC publicity campaigns that successfully altered the state of America and sought to broaden the scope of the civil rights movement to include not only Black Americans but many other disenfranchised members of society — a mission sadly curtailed by the untimely death of MLK Jr. The text of an SCLC flier about the campaign stated that "we, the poor people of America, demand decent jobs and income" and "the right to a decent life" (SCLC, 1968a, as cited in Hon, 1997, p. 187).
"Social science debates on class versus caste"
"Logistical failure of the Washington encampment"
Many argue that the Poor People's Campaign was a marked failure in its ability to produce lasting effects on social change and representation. Yet it is also clear that the concepts King and the SCLC advanced were deeply entrenched in the social movements of the day. It is equally clear that the movement has not achieved its goals, as social and economic disparity is in fact growing at an alarming rate today.
You’re 50% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 2 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.