30 april 1968 & poor people's campaign goes to capitol hill
#OTD 30 April 1968 The activists and leaders of the Poor People's Campaign (PPC) go to Capitol Hill to share their 59-page document full of demands to end poverty, institute a guaranteed income for all, obtain land rights and more. In the above photo, Ms. Alberta Scott is joined by Rev. Ralph Abernathy at a meeting with the Senate Labor Committee. They were part of a coalition of dozens of other black, native American, Puerto Rican, Mexican-American, Asian American and white activists who traveled across the U.S. to join the PPC. I believe that the person behind Ms. Scott wearing shades is Marian Wright (Edelman), an attorney and SCLC counsel for the PPC.
Other PPC organizers included José Ortiz (New York Young People's spokesperson), Rev. Walter Fauntroy (City Councilmember), and Rev. Bernard Lafayette (DC SCLC Campaign director) visited other agencies. Fauntroy and Lafayette visited the Department of Housing and Urban Development and told Robert Weaver (HUD director) that "existing programs for housing poor people are totally inadequate."
Please comment below. Did you participate in the organizing on the Hill? What issues were you focused on? Did you participate in the Poor People's Campaign? You may comment privately here.
Photo source: Courtesy of Library of Congress, U.S. News & World Report, LC-U9-19031. Photographer unknown.
Gordon Mantler, Power to the Poor: Black-Brown Coalition and the Fight for Economic Justice, 1960-1974. UNC Press, 2013.
