Abernathy and the Executive Vice-President of SCLC, Rev.
The program includes the Rev.
Not equality and justice, but robbery and rebellion against all authority by any means.It is easy for sophisticated liberals and radicals to dismiss this as self-righteous moralizing from the ruling class. The lumpenproletariat lacks these qualities because it is not quite a class at all but a collection of subgroups divided by ethnic, racial, linguistic, and geographical factors.In any case, and more to the point, I am not sure that classes are progressive—or reactionary—in and of themselves, but only in relation to their social roles. Speech, accessed May 6, 2014, Maynard, Robert C. “Is King’s Nonviolence Now Old-Fashioned?”.
In my own view, the proletariat had, and has, many more “progressive” virtues than does the lumpenproletariat—that is, if the word “progressive” is shorn of its romantic foolishness. There is, in short, nothing in the faces of the poor themselves that will necessarily inspire the sympathy or supportive political action of the majority; poverty can just as easily inspire fear and revulsion.These thoughts have been occasioned by the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, a project which has been attacked more widely, and with more contempt, than any “radical” action in years—with the Late in 1967, when Dr. Martin Luther King first put forth the notion of a Spring Protest in Washington, he and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference had already experienced several disappointments in their effort to transplant their Southern-born movement to the Northern ghettos. “Mall Is Top Choice for March Campers.” Clopton Jr., Willard. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, will be the keynote speaker.
(As anyone knows who has known Southern Baptist ministers, each and every member of the SCLC leadership believes that his role is divinely inspired and divinely to inspire.) While the legacy of the civil rights movement is punctuated by the victories of the 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March on Washington, few remember the daring but ultimately futile protest organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that brought thousands of poor Americans to Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1968 to erect a tent city and demonstrate for economic rights. After all, the Campaigners were people who were condemning American society, in toto or in part, as “racist” and “sick.” And what values were they offering as substitutes? .I do not believe it is possible to attract sufficient numbers to the nation’s capital unless, far in advance, the strategy and tactics have fully been made clear to all concerned. The reason they leave is that men are getting tired of coming home from a day’s picketing to find their belongings stolen or their wife raped.Not even the most cynical observer can deny that one of the greatest resources of the civil-rights movement has been its moral capital, its “soul power.” Resurrection City was dubbed the “City of Hope.” Rev. . But at the same time, you need to ensure you give your marketing campaign enough time to succeed. For if the Poor People’s Campaign failed to produce its desired impact—and most agree that it did—then the reasons for that failure, as well as its ultimate significance, must be traced in large measure to the debate which took place last April and May between Rustin and the campaign leadership. .
In mid-May, harassed and frazzled, Abernathy telephoned Rustin and implored him to take over responsibility for the one-day Mobilization in support of the Poor People’s Campaign, then scheduled for May 30.
On the same day, one hundred demonstrators confronted Attorney General Ramsey Clark at the Department of Justice. .
“Wilkins Fears Riots Could Mar March.” Clopton Jr., Willard. Ralph David Abernathy, King’s successor, that he would be available for consultation on the logistics of the Poor People’s Campaign. Nevertheless, the Poor People’s March took place on June 19, 1968, led by Ralph Abernathy, a longtime friend of King who had been promoted to president of the SCLC from his post of vice president..
“Poor Marchers’ ‘City’ Creates Its Own Style.” Clopton, Jr., Willard.
Also important is its effect on the participants—on their morale and on their willingness to work harder once they have returned home.
Then, too, the opposition was politically much more sophisticated, often showing a deceptively amiable countenance; the Daley machine in Chicago was a far different animal from Bull Connor. Two days after the issuance of the “Call,” Hosea Williams called a press conference and denounced the document as “a bunch of jazz and foolishness.” He said it was “unauthorized” and asserted, furthermore, that Rustin was merely a “public-relations man” for the Mobilization. In the United States, where urban guerrilla warfare will not be endured, the response will be repression and a turn to the Right.
Some groups indicated they would suspend activity until some clarification were offered. When given the choice between reporting on the peaceful demeanor of thousands or a dirty hippie splashing in a pool, the press will always pick the dirty hippie.“The Goals of the Poor People's Campaign, 1968.” Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement 1954-1985. Reactions, whether friendly or hostile, can take a while to register.Yet it must be said that there is so far little evidence that the Mobilization made an impact. Yet even despite these internal flaws, what ultimately doomed the Poor People’s Campaign was its over-exposure to press coverage that indulged in the Campaign’s scandalous sideshows rather than its central, yet admittedly vague, theme of economic rights for all. Andrew Young.
At such a time the.