THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN INC

40th Anniversary of the Poor People's Campaign
“The dispossessed of this nation—the poor, both white and Negro—live in a cruelly unjust society. They must organize . . . against the injustice, not against the lives of the persons who are their fellow citizens, but against the structures through which the society is refusing to take means which have been called for, and which are at hand, to lift the load of poverty. There are millions of poor people in this country who have very little, or even nothing, to lose. If they can be helped to take action together, they will do so with a freedom and a power that will be a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life..." Martin Luther King, Jr.Trumpet of Conscience (1967)
40 years ago, in December 1967, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. announced the Poor People’s Campaign – a movement of poor Blacks, Whites, Native Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and others who came together to end poverty and to secure economic justice and human rights in the United States.
In 1968, after MLK’s assassination, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference undertook a massive campaign bringing 7,000 protesters to live in “Resurrection City” in our nation’s capitol.
Today, we celebrate this legacy and call for the reigniting of this Campaign. Join the Campaign in commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Poor People’s Campaign.
King called upon us to “lift the load of poverty” in the United States and across the world, yet there are millions of people without homes, health care or meaningful and well-paying jobs. The Poor People's Campaign is committed to raising up generations of religious and community leaders dedicated to building a social movement, led by the poor.We will focus our year’s activities—immersion courses, cultural events, workshops, conferences, research projects, community protests and activities, and our cornerstone Poverty Scholars Program—on commemorating and re-igniting the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. Together we can support and help unite poor people—low-wage workers, public-housing residents, farmworkers, homeless families, hungry children and people without health care—into a leading force of a broad movement to end poverty.