Press Conference on Poor People’s Campaign (1968)

Duration: 0:57

Year Published: 1968

Sound: sound

Description: This news segment for Houston’s KPRC-TV captures a press conference with two local preachers about the upcoming Poor People’s Campaign. The Poor People’s Campaign, also known a the Poor People’s March on Washington, brought thousands of Americans to Washington, DC, to demand economic justice for the nation’s poor. The campaign was initially organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ralph Abernathy, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), took over leadership following King’s assassination. Demonstrations began on May 12, when Coretta Scott King lead a march and rally in support of an Economic Bill of Rights. Throughout the month, SCLC mobilized nine caravans of protesters from across the nation to converge on Washington. Houstonians most likely joined the Western Caravan, which arrived in Washington on May 23. In the nation’s capital, some 3,000 demonstrators set up a protest camp on the national Mall. “Resurrection City,” as it came to be known, remained for six weeks.