2 NEW SOUTH/FALU1968

THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN

By WARREN PRITCHARD

Mr. Pritchard, a member of SRC's informa­ effect of the rain which dumped more tion staff, spent two months this summer in water (nine inches) on Resurrection City Washington with the Poor People's Campaign. during its six weeks than normally falls The Poor People's Campaign began to on the park there in three months. bog down about mid-afternoon, Sunday, Events preceding the stadium evacua­ May 19th, seven days after the first cadre tion pointed up weaknesses that would of poor people arrived in Washington. continue throughout the Campaign to That afternoon some 1,300 incoming cam­ plague an organization run largely on paigners, evicted on four hours notice faith and dreams (and still sorely grieving from the District of Columbia Stadium, the loss of its prime dreamer scarcely a moved into an uncompleted Resurrection month before) with many more plans and City. The eviction coincided with the decisions than clear communications of beginning of the monsoon-like rains that either. eventually would move some residents to Administration of the Poor People's wonder if even the Lord was still on their Campaign was loosely divided into three side. Spirits would remai n high for several levels, sometimes operating as a unit, weeks as residents went out to chall enge sometimes not. At the top was the execu­ segments of the most powerful govern­ tive staff of SCLC, the Rev. Ralph Aber­ ment on earth, but from that afternoon nathy, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. the measure of Res urrection City was James Bevel, the Rev. Mr. Young, and more that it survived as a symbol than Hosea Wi lliams. They made the major that it sustained a movement. decisions, set the major policies, and to After that Sunday, the City was never the degree circumstances allowed, the to become the secondary concern of minor ones as well. Below this was a mid­ Campaign leaders. The Rev. Andrew dle echelon of administrators, both paid Yo ung of SCLC would observe later that SCLC staff members and full-time volun­ it became instead a millstone hung teers; they took responsibility for the day­ around thei r necks, demanding energies to-day functions of the Campaign-feed­ that would have been better spent in the ing and transporting the people, planning business of confrontation. In Selma, for incomin g caravans, and later maintain­ Albany, Birmingham, and Memphis, ing construction, education, and social leaders had not had to attend to the services at Resurrection City. The third feeding and sheltering of their followers. level was a large group of part-time vol­ In earlier days, those who had not been unteer helpers and others-mostly stu­ jai led or hospitalized after demonstra­ dents - who were both workers and tions returned to their own homes, and demonstrators. the weather was a minor hindrance com­ Most of the middle ecllelon people pared to physical harassments such as were included with the executive staff police dogs and firehoses. In Washington, in its deliberations, but on any question the absence of other visible challenges, debated in the nightly staff meetin gs obstacles to be overcome, intensified the (which frequently ran long after mid- •

PRITCHARD : THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN 3 ..... _-.... -,. night) there rarely emerged a concensus es in suburban Maryland and Virginia to be passed down as a si ngle decision. could be e nlisted to serve as reception More often, the people at the middle centers, feeding and housing the incom­ echelon, who mi ght have taken part in ing campaigners until they could be ac­ the discussions the night before, would commodated in the City. With luck, receive at least two o rde rs during the ample arrangements could be ready in course of a day. - orders reflecting in the churches by Friday and all 1,300 number and substance whatever view­ people expected on the two caravans points had come up in the meeting. An would have a place to stay, at least tem­ order received from above in the morn­ porarily. Originally the churches were to in g was almost certain to be counte r­ have been used for a short period of time manded later in the day. - perhaps overnight-to receive and or­ From this there developed at the mid­ ient the people before they moved on to dle echelon the practice of acting with­ the City. Now it was foreseen that many out regard to any decision passed down of the churches might have to house from above unless it concurred with one's people for two, three, even four days. own view of a situation which, more of­ Then came Wednesday afternoon. New ten than not, demanded immediate at­ reports from the Midwestern Caravan put tention. Within this middle echelon, its number at 1,000 as it ente red Pitts­ communication between the various seg­ burg. According to schedule, they would ments usually was maintained on an ad spend the ni ght there and depart for hoc basis and aimed as much as anything Washington the next morning, Thursday. at avoiding a duplication of efforts. As Twenty-six busloads of people were com­ ' the operation of Resurrection City be­ ing a full day earlier than those planning came a major task of the Campaign, the and dovetailing the arrivals ever expec­ administration came more and more into ted them. the hands of those whose au thority, es­ The planners, mostly the middle pecially fi scal, fell far short of the mount­ echelon people, had been working from ing responsibilities they faced. an old schedule that had been obsolete for several weeks. For a week since the • • • • • Midwestern Caravan had left Chi cago, By Wednesday, May 15, when Resur­ the Campaign information center had rection City was three days old, most of received progress reports from its vol­ the first cadre of poor people - m o re unteer reporte r travell ing on one of the than 400 from Quitman County, Missis­ Caravan buses. He had called in twice sippi, and Memphis - had moved into daily, giving details of the reception pro­ the plywood structures that they had vided at each stop, the number of people helped complete. At that point, the plan­ joining at each city along the way, and ners, most of them in the middle echelon how closely the schedule was being fol­ of the Campaign's administrative frame­ lowed. This information was in turn pas­ work, were hurriedly preparing for the sed on to newsmen who were following arrival of 800 membe rs of the Eastern the progress of this and other incoming Caravan and approximately 500 from the groups. Thus the frantic worke rs at the Midwestern Caravan, both expected to SCLC headquarters did not realize until arrive on Friday, the 17th. the eve of arrival that the 1,000 journey­ It had become clear that construction wearied travellers would be upon them was not moving forward rapidly e nough the next evening, while suburban Mary­ to provide accommodations for all of land newspapers, and major news agen­ them at Resurrection City as they arrived. cies, even Tass, had known the correct But Friday was still two days away, and arrival date for at least a week. during that period of grace more church- At a meeting called late Wednesday 4 NEW SOUTH/FAUJ1968

~. night at the headquarters, a ft e r the tiona! 500 unexpected campaigners into ,.. .- accura te schedule had become known Washington on Thursday morning. "Sweet to the workers there, the decision was Mother of God, are you sure?" was the il made to contact the leader of the Car­ reply to this news from one of the har­ avan in Pi ttsburg and have him hold ried pl anners. No one dared guess how the re until things in Washington could be many such ad hoc groups might be form­ straightened out. It soon became clear at ing in other citi es across the country or, that meeting, however, that the only fi rst more alarming at that point, how many hand communication between the Car­ might already have departed fo r Resurrec­ avan and Washi ngton had been through tion Ci ty without bothering or bein g able the info rmation center. Consequently, no to notify anyone in Washington. one at the headquarte rs knew how to Thursday and Friday, the si tuation was contact the Caravan leade r. as near pani c as it ever got, but everyone By 3 a. m. Thursday, several attempts stayed at work, stayed " on the case," as to locate the Caravan leade r had failed. a Campaign slogan put it. The Midwest­ A call to the Uni ted Press International ern Caravan, its members waiting im­ offi ce in Pittsburg revealed the name of patiently in Pi ttsburg, was again ordered a church whe re a reporter said he thought to postpone departure, this ti me until a ra lly had been held earlier in the eve­ Saturday at least. The people's patience ning. A call to the church was taken by a was near its limits. There had been sleepy assistant pastor who could confirm trouble three days earl ier during the only that the Ca ravan was in Pi ttsburg stopover in Detroit when a force of and that the rally had been held at that mounted policemen had charged a crowd ch urch earlier in the evening. He didn't outside the ir rally the re. The Rev. Mr. know where the Caravan leade r was stay­ Abe rnathy had dispatched the Rev. Mr. ing, but thought his pastor did. The con­ Young and Hosea Williams to Detroit versation ended as he promised to find after the incident, and the Caravan's de­ the pastor and have him notify the Car­ parture the next morning had been held avan leade r to call SCLC headquarte rs in up by day-long attempts to hold a dem­ Washington. onstration protesting the police action. He finall y ca lled later Thursday morn­ Now they had been asked a second ti me ing a nd agreed to postpone d e pa rture fo r to wait in Pit tsburg. Washington until Friday. He said he had The Caravan leade r explained to his t ried to call several ti mes Wednesday people what he knew of the situation in and before, but the switchboard o perator Washington and put their next move to at SCLC headquarters, unde r strict o rders, a vote. They decided to move on toward would not accept his coll ect call s. It was Washington, with the idea of stayi ng over not lea rned why he did not pay fo r a in Bal timo re if necessary. Waiting there call himself. was no worse than waiting in Pittsburg, The planne rs had gained time now, but it was reasoned, and the Caravan would only for the one Caravan. On Wednesday be just that much closer to Washington at about the time they were realizing and Resurrection City. But Balti more, that it would be upon them one day which had provided food and shelte r to earl ier and 500 persons stronger than they the Eastern Caravan just departed, had had anticipated, a call had come from nothi ng prepared for these 1,000 from Chi cago (again to the informatio n center, Pittsburg when they arrived the re on Sat­ not SCLC headquarte rs) with the report urday afte rnoon. that a new group had just been recruited Again the Caravan leader put the next the re and would leave for Washington move to a vote. The choices offe red were within the hour. Travelling directly, non­ sleeping on folding chairs and gym na­ stop, this Caravan would bring an addi- si um fl oors in Baltimore or the possibility .. PRITCHARD: THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN 5 of sleeping outside on the ground at Res­ like something that had taken place a urrection City. They voted unanimously month or more in the past. • for Resurrection City, with or without On Sunday morning, buses began shut­ food and shelter. tling between the stadium and the food In the meantime, on Saturday, at an tent at Resurrection City where an early afternoon meeting hurriedly called in the lunch was being served. Shortly before office of the mayor of Washington, SCLC noon, the stadium owner arrived with staff people reached an agreement with several police officials to investigate re­ the owner of the District of Columbia Sta­ ports that his property had been dam­ dium for the use of his auditorium on an aged during the night. (Reports said emergency basis to shelter the incoming someone had stolen candy and beer from campaigners for two or three days while a concession stand and damaged the pub­ construction was being completed at Res­ lic address system.) urrection City. After the inspection, the owner issued Also on Saturday, some of the subur­ an ultimatum. He would return in the ban churches were demanding that their afternoon with a force of policemen. facilities be vacated in preparation for Anyone remaining on the premises after Sunday services. (One such demand came 4 p.m. would be arrested for trespassing. very near provoking a test, unprece­ Thus began the Dunkirk-like run for dented, of whether a group of poor peo­ Resurrection City. Every available vehicle ple would be evicted forcefully from a was rushed to the stadium. The people church by a well-to-do congregation, jammed aboard buses, trucks, and even never unanimous in its Good Samaritan into automobiles flagged down on the impulse.) The group coming directly from street. Minutes before the 4 p.m. dead­ Chicago (380 actually made the trip) had line the last evictee had left. arrived on time Thursday and been ac­ Resurrection City residents numbering commodated at two churches in the area some 900 in the morning were now more of central Washington. By Friday night than 2,500. Plans for orderly reception of these churches too were beginning to de­ new arrivals were tossed aside. The metic­ mand that some of their guests leave, ulously detailed specifications for locat­ particularly a restive group of young men ing and fabricating the plywood tents­ -a number of whom identified them­ which had never seemed very essential­ selves as Blackstone Rangers-who were were forgotten in the squatters-like finally coaxed away, largely on the pros­ scramble in the rain for a bit of space pect of there being girls at Resurrection and material to build a shelter. Though City. Early Saturday evening, the Mid­ many of the people got wet, no one had western Caravan moved into Washington to sleep without some sort of roof over and on to D. C. Stadium. By midnight his head that night and few even missed more than 1,300 people, most of them a meal. Elsewhere, 400 members of the hungry and weary from travel, were Southern Caravan were settling down in sheltered there. churches across the river in Arlington. The excitement of the previous week­ And in the Far West, four separate cara­ end was almost forgotten now. The thrill vans were gaining momentum and mov­ of watching history pass by as the first ing eastward toward Washington with buses from Marks and Memphis had some 500 new campaigners, among them rolled into the city of Washington, the the Indians and Mexican-Americans. The passengers -anxiously singing freedom Mule Train with 75 was still in Mississippi. songs as they made their way to join the • • • * • Mothers' Day march Mrs. King had led "Ghandi would have filled the jails by through the bombed-out ghetto area the now," an India-born reporter observed previous Sunday, now began to seem during the third week of the Campaign, 6 NEW SOUTH/FALU1968 adding, " At the time of the Salt March, when the leaders there had discussed he had more than a hundred thousand providing demonstrators with protective people in prison in just over a month's gas masks and helmets and then decided • time." Dr. King, discussing the proposed against it in the belief that an oppressor's Poor People's Campaign months earlier, pain must be suffered raw and pure in had talked of nonviolently paralyzing the order to create the kind of love that city of Washington, blocking with human would wear down and eventually redeem bodies its bridges and thoroughfares. The him. In Washington the philosophy ac­ surviving SCLC leaders would talk later counted in part for the leaders' reluctance of filling the city's jails, of sharing the to make things easier at Resurrection City pains of poverty with Washington's more -to put gravel on the quagmire road­ affluent residents, and of permitting the ways, to install showers, to make travel nation's lawmakers no new business un­ money quickly available to anyone who til they took up the old business of wanted or needed to go home-and re­ poverty. luctance, finally combined with an in­ In fact, just before the stadiu m was capacity, to impose some vitalizing rou­ secu red for shelter, when it looked as if tine on the City's day-to-day operation. they were about to be engulfed by many On the day they might have chosen more people-all of them potential the Indian reporter's option, leaders of demonstrators-than could possibly be the Campaign were already committed accommodated and fed, the leaders had to the slower course. They had lodged considered initiating arrest-seek i n g their demands with the various agencies demonstrations immediately. of government and would spend several Mass arrests at that time would have weeks collecting responses. Although it so lved the pressing problem of housing was unlikely that the demands would be and feeding not only the people they met, the leaders were probably as bound knew were coming but also the unknown to the step-by-step means-in which the numbers that they feared were forming­ escalation to civil disobedience is a latter like the ad hoc Chicago group-all over resort-as they had been even to go on the country. In the following weeks, such with the Campaign at all after the assas­ demonstrations might have avoided the sination of Dr. King. stifling e nnui that would develop in Res­ Also, basic to the decision not to ini­ urrection City among residents who tiate mass arrests immediately was the seemed to want nothing so much as to fact that the Campaign leaders did not offer themse lves limply to the police. at that point know much about their fol­ The need for housing was critical. For lowers. At a press conference on Thurs­ all the leaders knew with certainty, an­ day afternoon (May 16), the Rev. Mr. La­ other week might bring thousands more fayette sought to persuade groups of in­ campaigners to Washington, eager to dividuals not then on an incoming cara­ demonstrate and be arrested. It seemed van to postpone converging on Washing­ clear that sooner or later arrests would ton until Solidarity Day, set for May 30, be sought anyway. So why not begin but subsequently rescheduled for june 19. now? One answer was that the philoso­ Campaign leaders called for more time phy of a nonviolent movement, while not to get the City in order, to "workshop" inflexible, is stern enough not to permit the present residents in the philosophy the use of such tactics merely to over­ and practice of nonviolence, and to come its proponents' carelessness. screen out those among them who might One aspect of the philosophy had been be unable to pledge themselves to the evident at Selma several years before (re­ principle. The diffusion of attention be­ called by the Rev. Mr. Bernard Lafayette, tween the demands of the City and de­ National Coordinator of the Campaign) mands of the Campaign was such that PRITCHARD: THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN 7.

none of these intentions was ever fully of newsmen in pursuit of the Rev. Mr. carried out. Abernathy, the Rev. Mr. Jackson, or • Registrars were able to maintain a Hosea Williams. The Rev. Mr. Abernathy reasonably accurate count of Resurrection was usually left above most of this detail. City residents as they arrived - approxi­ The Rev. Mr. jackson's tenure as City mately 5,000 in all during the six weeks Manager ended before the day-to-day de­ -even when the stadium eviction dis­ mands and the weather became so de­ rupted the reception process. But they bilitating. The daily demonstrations then could only guess at the number of people seemed to take much of the pressure off. leaving, especially during the periods By the time Williams replaced him, it when heavy rains forced tempora ry probably was too late for anyone to put evacuations. Several attempts to conduct the City in the kind of o rder that would a census, not being vital to survival, fell have made it an unemcumbering base to the same confusion that frustrated the for the demonstration-confrontation part other less essential aspects of the City's of the Campaign. operation. Williams set about managing the City (Ea rly in the Campaign, a worker was and directing the demonstrations with the sent to the Office of Economic Oppor­ vigor of a newly elected reform mayor. tunity library for information on the non­ One of the at least half-dozen plans of black minorities participating. He learned community organization - an elected there that the experts' estimates even of City Council with neighborhood repre­ the numbers of Negroes, Mexican-Ameri­ sentatives and a grievance procedure - cans, and Indians living in the United was encouraged anew. Williams' appoint­ States are not much better than the com­ ment of new people to head the various putations made at Resurrection City. segments of City administration was wel­ Accurately counting other than w hite comed by some who had been there from Americans requires more imagination the first, but others were alienated. His than the Bureau of the Census apparently open criticism of the food service opera­ possesses. It also requires more sensitivity tion brought the dietitian to tears, but than the OEO statisticians seem able to not to res ignation. A threatened strike by muster as they continue nationwide dis­ the wo•kers at the middle echelon, calling tribution of a booklet - reckoning w ith for tl.e reappointment of the Rev. Mr. sliding scales of income the number of jackson as City Manager, did not materi­ poverty families in 1965, midway between al ize. A few of them dropped out, but the censuses - in which the word Negro most stayed " on the case." is spelled throughout with a small n.) Williams provided a new image of re­ As the weeks passed, the position and form just by being at the City, but he was tasks of the middle echelon workers at there only relatively more than the other Resurrection City became more and more leaders, and the orders he issued did not difficult. They came to measure their carry down much more effectively be­ success at the end of a day by basic ac­ cause of his presence. The recipient of complishments such as all three meals a plan or an order still followed it only having again been served. Their work was if it fit his judgment of what needed to be maintaining little more than survival. done. Given the greater familiarity of Whenever a member of the executive these people with most exigent matters staff appeared at the City, he was im­ at hand, they usually were correct. medi ately swamped with a multitude The memory of Williams at this time • of nagging details. Residents wanting is of a man trying with some desperation - bus fare back to Mobile or Detroit, and rather heavy-handedly to do every­ reimbursement for building materials, or thing. Dressed in a light blue or khaki a hundred other things, joined the pack j ump suit, he would march through the 8 NEW SOUTH/FALV1968

City, bullhorn in hand, call ing the people whether it was a question of seeking ar­ to lunch, later, calling them to line up for rest or merely getting money to purchase a demonstration, and taking time in plumbing pipes. Because they were fewer, between to conduct the mail call. He because they were relatively better organ­ attempted several measures of reform at ized and more tightly maneuverable, and the City Hall, one of which was to lock because they choose to avoid being himself inside and regulate the lines of caught up in the confusion, the Indian residents demanding to have their prob­ and Mexican-American groups never lems heard. By the end of a day his voice moved into Resurrection City. If they had would be hoarse from exercise on the arrived before it had begun to immobi­ bullhorn and public address system, an­ lize itself, their presence might have nouncing new plans, new policies, orga­ altered the City's eventual course. As it nizing an d reorganizing into, it finally happened, they arrived in Washington seemed, the stratosphere. late, and by then, their voices - like The unrecognized hero of the Cam­ even the voice of Williams and other paign was a gentle young SCLC staff man individual SCLC leaders - simply could from Savannah named Benjamin Van not cut through and translate thoughts Clarke, Williams' assistant. From the be­ into action. It was a separation that came ginning he was the ra re constant at Res­ between people and common goals, be­ urrection City (like the man who was tween individual voices and concerted there every morning for a while with an action, an unintentional de facto detach­ urn of hot coffee) on hand at City Hall ment which everyone finally seemed all day and most of the night listening to powerless to alter. the problems, soothing the tempers, A mild expression of the exasperation keeping the faith, the only high-level was heard during the most moving dem­ SCLC staff member who seemed deeply onstration of the entire Campaign. at home there. On one of the last days, More than 400 poor people of all colors as he called a meeting of the City Council set out for the Department of Justice, for what must have been the one hun­ seeking a rendezvous with Attorney Gen­ dredth time, one could listen and almost eral Ramsey Clark. They marched by believe even then that the whole thing groups, the Mexican-Americans out front, was about to take new life and flourish. followed by the whites and then the Even after no more than 500 residents Indians, with the blacks in the rear sud­ could be counted in the City, Williams denly beginning to sing as they emerged continued to the end to operate as if he from Resurrection City and ru shed to had 3,000, as if he were commanding an catch up, their song spreading forward invisible army. It was argued that much and quickening the pace. The marchers could yet be accomplished with the picked up a large escort of policemen as cadre that he did have, a sort of pure they crossed 17th Street and began the hard core from which the less dedicated easy climb over the rising ground that had been eliminated, most by self-selec­ leads from there up to the Washington tion out, over the weeks. Most of the 500 Monument. Then just as the line stretched were still there when Resurrection City's out in the open, its strength fully visible camping permit finally - the Rev. Mr. for the first time, a dark storm cloud Young later would say in effect, merci­ floated overhead, generating an unsea­ fully - expired. sonably powerful wind. The dozens of The chaotic process by which decisions Monument flags were set straight out and and plans were made and passed on to be cracking like whips at the very moment acted upon was exasperating to anyone the first marchers passed by and on over who craved to get on with whatever he the crest of the hill. It was as if the Al­ perceived as urgent business at hand, mighty Himself were saluting the poor PRITCHARD: THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN 9 ... people passing below in review. And in the dinner line one evening swapping then, as if to reassert celestial authority, bites from the same baked potato. Or on • the cloud opened and drenched them all the lawn of a West Virginia Senator's sub­ with a short, hard downpour. Ten minutes urban home where residents of Resur­ later, the sun was shining again. They rection City joined more than 100 of his spent the afternoon and ea rly evening poor white mountain constituents to tell outside a door of the justice Department the former Ku Klux Klansman they did building. not share his view that the assassi nated The Attorney General refused several leader had gotten what he deserved. times to yield to the demand that he • • • • • meet with more than a small group of the Because SCLC leaders had been among demonstrators. After his fi nal refusal, the inventors and decorated veterans of Hosea Williams emerged from the nego­ the civil rights struggle, interpretation of tiations and, with anger in his voice, an­ a nonviolent movement to initiates and nounced that the time had now come to outsiders properly belonged to them. If escalate the Campaign. He began leading a press briefing were scheduled to pre­ the bulk of the demonstrators in a march cede a march on the Capitol at mid­ around the block covered by the build­ morning and no leader appeared at Re­ ing, while Rudolfo (Corky) Gonzales re­ surrection City before mid-afternoon, this mained with his predominantly Mexican­ was explained as "one of those days that American group in front of the door. comes along occasionally in the move­ Williams' group circled the building ment." If newsmen were upset because twice, flirting w ith arrest each time as of botched schedules that seemed to get they swung off the sidewalk and out into demonstrations started just moments be­ the street between the line of policemen fore their afternoon deadlines, it was and Gonzales' waiting group. But when made clear that a movement is not run for it was learned that the police intended the benefit of the press. And if newsmen to make no arrests under the several ordi­ and others were frustrated at not know­ nances the marchers were violating, Wil­ ing what was planned for the next day, liams announced that everyone would or for the afternoon, or for even an hour now march to a nearby church for a mass later, they were told that this was a move­ meeting to plan strategy. Gonzales, never ment, not a military campaign. Interpre­ ruffled or miffed, replied dispass ion­ tation was not spared the Campaign ately that his group would stay, that the participants either, however. strategy was already made, and they did In the latter days, two weeks after the not need to sit up all night in some justice Department demonstrations, when church like a group of bureaucrats dis­ groups of Resu rrection City people were cussing it. Williams then led his group beginning to form their own strategy on back to Resurrection City. (It was not the the spur of the moment - seeking arrest split between the groups that newsmen in one particular instance when they were were fond of searching for. Gonzales and supposed to be maintaining a picket vigil Williams were together the next day to at the Department of Agriculture--Hosea lead another demonstration back to the Williams rush ed in at the call of lawyers justice Department.) who had informed him of the tactic and Brief moments of Dr. King's dream ap­ impending arrests, gathered the people peared in settings like the food tent at up out of the doorways where they were Resurrection City where two residents - sitting, led a march around the building, one who likely was the son of a former and then sent most of them back to Res­ -- slave and the other whose skin was white urrection City with the admonishment: but whose appearance suggested peasant "We don't have a movement yet." In this rather than slave-owning ancestry-stood and other cases, the leader was lagging 10 NEW SOUTH/FALLJ1968 behind his followers. Nevertheless, he re­ they were at Resurrection City. Among mained the final instrument for determin­ the inhabitants there was fighting and ing, almost cosmically, just when move­ loving, stealing, and singing. ment had in fact arrived, the people wait­ The last time I went inside the City ing in his absence for the paddy wagons was one of its last and tensest nights. notwithstanding. Movement in this case Earlier, in the afternoon, several demon­ was being defined in the frame of some strators had been injured by the police as larger strategy, apparently known only they sought arrest in a nonviolent demon­ to Williams, and oblivious to the abun­ stration at the Agriculture Department. dantly obvious mood of his people. Later there had been an incident at a D D D street crossing as those not arrested re­ From the beginning there was a tacit turned to the City. Police said they had agreement that the police would not en­ used tear gas to drive the marchers in­ ter Resurrection City unless they were side the City after being attacked with called. Keeping the peace within the con­ rocks. A mass meeting had been called fines of the City was the responsibility of for 9 p.m. the marshals, a force at one time or an­ Rumors were flying about. Some said other joined by almost every young man the police were about to gas the entire there and made up of several groups of area and sweep through the City. (They varying legitimacy and longevity. Ob­ did gas it three nights later, responding, servers noted that being a marshal was they said, to a rock barrage on cars pass­ the most popular occupation of the Cam­ ing by on a street nearby. This midnight paign, the amateur sociologists among gassing was to be so severe that more them theorizing that any isolated sub­ than 200 residents had to be evacuated, society of Americans will first establish, some to hospitals.) Others said the City before any other institution, a police de­ was about to explode from within. I went partment. Through most of the Campaign, that night out of a desire to see for my­ however, being a marshal was simply the self what might be happening and with only thing there was for a young man to the feeling that if the Campaign were in­ do. In fact, for anyone involved in the deed ending there and then, I had an Campaign, either at Resurrection City or obligation to see it out, to witness its end e lsewhere, a useful job, even a job that because I had thrilled at its beginning. gave the appearance of being useful, was Perhaps I really went only because I fully an uncommon prize. expected that we - three companions, The poor at Resurrection City acted in two of them black, the other whi te like the manner of poor people the nation me - would not be allowed in. over, doing violence to each other much But the police at the outer limits pas­ more frequently than together they do to sed us through and the marshals at the anyone else. Many of them had come City gate uncharacteristically let us in from neighborhoods (i f the backside of with only a cursory check of credentials. Marks, Mississippi, can be termed a neigh­ The prevailing mood of the meeting, held borhood) where one has to provide for hi s around the City Hall and using the City's own safety when threatened, neighbor­ public address system for amplification hoods where the basics - food, shelter, (from which newsmen on the outside took and clothing- as well as the luxuries - their sto ries) was anger directed at the hot running water, sanitary toilets, ade­ rock throwers who had exposed others, quate dental and medi cal care, a con­ women and children, to the reaction of cerned system of education, and a base the police. SCLC leaders and residents of from which the collective voice could de­ the City debated for more than two mand to be heard if not listened to - are hours. One speaker, not a resident, called things less constantly available than even for a "black power meeting" the next PRITCHARD: THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN 11 day, hinting broadly that the present and nothing happened there in Resurrec­ leaders had had their chance and proved tion City, despite the rumors, despite the themselves inc.apable of " dealing effect­ tension, and depite the fears. In fact, ively with the oppressors of poor black given the injection into the City and Cam­ people." This challenge was rebutted by paign of eve ry noxious ingredient gen­ the Rev. James Bevel, Campaign philos­ erally assumed to frustrate people to an­ opher and a sort of high guru of non­ ger, even rage - from the fact that the violence, who in typical eloquence put city and nation never rea lly permitted down the notion of violence with a " les­ them a status other than p o t e n t i a I son in revolution," the essence of which rioters; to the few ghetto-bred you ng was that "if you pass by a power plant on men who hit the street in Washington your way to burn a liquor store you ain' t looking for action, girls, anything but the talking about revolution," and that fight­ dullness offered at Resurrection City; to ing police on their terms " is like going the pervasive heat and rain; to the mias­ after a tank armed with a peashooter." mal hours of inaction; to a security sys­ It was not so much that violence was im­ tem (later mirrored at the convention hall moral, which he held it was, but that it in Chicago) not infreq uently abusive; to was ineffectual and utterly foolish as leaders who seemed at times to neglect well. them - it is remarkab le that the people Hosea Williams, who acted as modera­ remained so peacefully faithful to non­ tor of the meeting and refereed use of the violence. One resident, representative of microphone by residents contending for many of the young men there, rejected a chance to have their say, told the the idea that formal leaders were needed gathering that the time had co me to de­ to shape and guide what was already a ci de w hether they wanted to have a Re­ beautiful community. Instead, he said, the surrection City or not. He warned them, people shou ld congratulate themselves in a bit of CIA baiting (which may or may for bei ng a ghetto that did not exhibit not have been based in fact), that there common ghetto characteristics. No one were agents among them who might at­ had been murdered. No one had died of tempt to set fire to the City or otherwise an overdose of drugs. provoke the police to come in. They 0 0 0 must be alert to any infiltrators. (I sud­ Law and order outside the City was, denly realized that there was no way for of course, the task of the regular police. me, or anyone else, to prove quickly to Their usual duty with the Poor People's an impassioned challenger in that dark Campaign was to join an outgoing dem­ place that I was not an infiltrator. The onstration and march with it from the lonely low-key pani c recalled an incident City to its destination and back. They when, caught as a tourist in the midst of were always out in force and in times a torchlight parade of chanting Com­ of stress their resources and reinforce­ munist Party marchers on a dimly-lit men ts seemed limitless. Almost 200 of Calcutta slum back street, I had never them were counted in an alley adjacent felt so glaringly pale-skinned and, in that to Resurrection City the night Sen. Robert instance, American.) The Rev. Mr. Aber­ Kennedy's funeral cortege passed there nathy arrived shortly before midnight. He en ro ute to Arlington Cemetery. They asked, as a personal favor, that the were mixed racially about three-to-one women and children go to bed while the white to black. men organized a sentry watch to protect Most of the time their duty was ludi­ them from infiltrators while they slept. crous as is any emergency-oriented of­ He and the other leaders left as the City ficial's. They darted about the acres of settled dow n for the night. grass around the Washington Monument Nothing happened to me in Calcutta, on their motor scooters, helmeted out-

'------12 NEW SOUTH/ FALL/1968 riders escorting the marchers and look­ ington Monument, off below at the op­ ing like water bugs, feet and w heels ob­ posite end of the Mall. The episode scu red by the grass. Their officers were seemed to symbolize how little effect the chauffeured in motorcycle side cars, poor people were having on the city-its looking menacingly like the ride-by shots officials as well as its tourists.) in old war films in which the monocled The same sort of response had come officer patrols up and down the line of several weeks before when the Rev. Jesse marching soldiers, shouting orders. On Jackson led some 100 Resurrection City occasion the police used their machines residents to the Department of Agricul­ to keep the marching lines straight and ture the day after the same group had out of the street, running at dragstrip ac­ walked out on a sizeable lunch check at celeration parallel to the curb, the of­ the department's basement cafeteria. Dur­ ficer crouching and bracing himself with ing what was taken to be a stall until the black leather-gloved hands clasping the cafeteria could be shut down for the day, gunnels of the side car, barking orders Joseph M. Robertson, Secretary Orville into his bullhorn. To a person suddenly Freeman's assistant for administration out near its path, a motorcycle can be. as (no rmally engaged in the business of ex­ terrifying as a rabid dog loose in the plaining the intricacies of the Agriculture street. Department to legislative committees) Once near the end of the Campaign, a negotiated with the Rev. Mr. Jackson and group of women from Resurrection City the Rev. Mr. Abernathy for a meeting took a walking tour of the Capitol area. with Freeman. The negotiation turned into ... After obeying a police captain's order a demand from Robertson that the check that they break up into small groups or be paid (it was) and from Jackson that the be arrested, members of one of the small marchers be allowed to come in out of groups decided they needed to use the the driving rain. ("Do you mean that the ... ladies' room, located inside the Capitol Department of Agriculture is going to let building. The captain deployed his men. hungry people stand outside its gates in Twelve burly corporals surrounded the the rain?") two dozen women and escorted them to The three retired to an anteroom off the side door of the building where an­ the main lobby to continue their negotia­ other officer informed them that Con­ tions. Shortly, as if on signal, the drenched gress had just adjourned, that if they did marchers began filing through the front not believe him they could check the door of the marble-columned building flagpole where the absence of the banner and heading, it appeared, toward the would prove that the lawmakers had cafeteria downstairs. This brought the called it a day. No matter, the women negotiators rushing out of their con­ repeated, they just wanted to use the ference. Robertson was quick to charge, ladies' room. The officer retreated inside as soon as he could work his way the building and after a conference with through the crowd that immediately sur­ the se rgeant-at-arms came back to report rounded the leaders, that this entrance that they could enter the building-but was a breech of the "good faith" in which only four at a time, that being, he said, he had agreed to negotiate. the capacity of the ladies' room. (As they " This," he said in the tight-lipped man­ were being escorted across the upper ner of men who have learned to speak terrace of the Capitol, a trio of camera­ without using contractions, "is not a non­ bearing tourists, unaware that they were violent act." missing the best photograph they were " The people are getting wet," said ever likely to see, had waited impatiently the Rev. Mr. Jackson. " They just want to for this procession to pass by so they come in out of the rain and use the could get their snapshots of the Wash- restroom." .. PRITCHARD: THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN 13 "The restroom can only be used ac­ tion. Hosea Williams pointed out that cording to schedule," Robertson said, many of the patrolmen on the front line • ho lding his ground. of the force keeping the people on the "That, Brother Robertson," the Rev. sidewalk had removed their badges and Mr. Jackson observed, " is a biological charged that they were trying to conceal process that does not subject itself to their identities in case they might need to schedules." use their billy sticks on the marchers. Robertson left and after conferring up­ The badges were all in place again when stairs returned with his verd ict. Yes, wet the television cameras panned on them. and hungry people could come in out of By the time Campaign leaders moved the rain. But they must stay in the first to seek arrest, they had long before lost foye r and " remain quiet and orderly." A the jail-filling potential that might have force of policemen and bui ldin g guards made massive civil di sobedience a suc­ was on hand by now to see that they cessful tacti c. At the Agriculture Depart­ did. ment three days before Resurrection City's camping permit ex p i red, t h e • • • • • demonstrators' clear intent to seek arrest When the time for arrests finally came, was obvious. The police could have ac­ the police force assigned to the Cam­ commodated them without force and cer­ paign - generally the same faces were tainly without trifling with the violent re­ seen throughout - had been waiting action that they and most of Washington five weeks. They had been on hand every had expected of the poor people since day to escort marchers from Resurrection their arrival in the city, and before. City to whatever department or agency The first arrests went smoothly as the building they were visiti ng, walking with policemen walked o r carried demonstra­ .. the people an average of maybe four tors from doorways of the main Agricul­ mil es per demonstration, and standing ture Department building to the paddy by outside as the demonstrators went into wagons. After 17 were arrested for block­ the buildings to stay no one knew how ing doorways, the strategy shifted to a long. Like the newsmen, they had had to wide intersection at the rear corner of be on hand w hether there was a demon­ the building. The demonstrators marched stration o r not, and the fact that few down the sidewalk to the corner where demonstrations left the City before 2 p.m. they waited for the traffic light to turn did not preclude the possibility that one to green. When it turned they started to would get off early in the morning. cross - some of them sitti ng down in Their high-level superiors accompani ed the street and the rest conti nuing on to most de monstrations (and when the time the opposite corne r where they grouped came, proved themselves as capable as and waited to repeat the operation. thei r troops of hurling gas canisters) As they watched, the police began a as did Justice Department officials and a tactic that escalated the tension. Rather small group of plai ns-clothes men who than giving the sitters a one o r two min­ tailed the marchers in an ubiquitous ute warning to move on and then placin g light green Ford, uniquely distinguish­ all of them under arrest, they immediate­ able by its Vermont license plates. Be­ ly set to the task of clearing the street, havior of the police was subject to a seizing the sitte rs by any available ap­ potentially constant public scrutiny by pendage, dragging them to the curbsi de, the television cameras that were as much and heaving them over, sometimes into a part of the campaign as portable bull­ the crowd. Some were taken to the pad­ horns. That the presence of the cameras dy wagons that had been backed up to had an effect on their behavior was borne the inte rsection, but there was no pattern out at the Justice Department demonstra- to the arrests. One person would be car- 14 NEW SOUTH/FALU1968 ""· ried to a paddy wagon wh ile another on the Mall about thirty yards to the next to him would be thrown over the rear.) curb. Those injured in the drag-off lay Suddenly a policeman who had emerged on the ground where they had been from a door to the side of the main thrown. entrance was scuffling with a you ng boy As the street was cleared, the poli ce­ who had been standing nearby. Seeing men formed lines along the curb, stand­ the commotion, the poli cemen under the in g shoulder-to-shoulder and facing the trees broke ranks and sprinted toward demonstrators from a distance of perhaps it, scattered like track runners after a three feet. They held this position, leav­ false start, looking over their shoulders to ing the crosswalk clear and allowing the see if they were all together in the demonstrators to repeat the crossing and charge, and continuing on afte r a second sitting, a few more being arrested at each orde r to stop. When the first ones got drag-off. there, the policeman - whom witnesses Either because of some verbal abuse, said the boy had called a "cracker'' - because part of the crowd bulged out as was already marching him to the paddy someone was hurled into it, or for no wagon. The boy and a companion were reason at all, the line of poli cemen cross­ charged with disorderly conduct and ed the curb and surged into the group haul ed away. congregated there, a number of them It was learned from a Justice Depart­ drivi ng to the cente r and flailing out with ment official who was present at all the their riot sticks like men with machetes demonstrations that the arrest procedure cutting a jungle path. This happened at for the street sitters the day before was least three times; each time two or three what lawmen call a " process of attrition," of the policemen abandoned their sticks by which they drag everyone off to the and set on the demonstrators with their side, fulfilling the first order of their fists, as if to make a more personal attack priorities which is to keep the street open of it. At least two we re heard to remark to traffic. They arrest only a few persons that they had been waiting a long time at each drag-off, aiming, it is assumed, to for this opportunity. During each surge, discourage others from seeking arrest. the onslaught continued after one, two, According to the justice Department and three bullhorn orders to " hold the man, this was the plan set in advance by line, get back." the police, and, in his words, " It went That day only about 80 of the demon­ off beautifully." He apparently ignored strators were arrested. The policemen the fact that several demonstrators were showed no more restraint the next after­ inj ured and that the policemen were only noon in a garden-like setting back at the fleetingly controlled as they applied their Agriculture Department building where " process of attrition." some 150 demonstrators had returned There was one man seen from time to with food and cots to resume a vigil be­ time during the Agriculture Department gun several days before. A third of them demonstrations who enjoyed free passage settled down in front of the main entrance through the police lines and whose o rd­ and the rest deployed themselves in ers seemed to carry considerable weight. several doorways at the back of the build­ He wore blue coverall s with the word ing. (The building was closed for the "POLICE" stencilled in yell ow letters weekend.) In front• a force of approxi­ across his back, setting off hi s steel grey mately 60 policemen was keeping watch crewcut hai r and dark glasses. Hi s equip­ on the demonstrators from under the ment included handcuffs, a long riot trees across the street. (All of these stick, a tool kit like that carried in a policemen were white; a smalle r group holster by telephone repairmen, a canva~ of their Negro coll eagues was bivouacked satchel which resembled those other PRITCHARD: THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN 15

policemen used to carry tear gas can­ In this view, the majority of representa­ isters, and, most puzzling, a large hunt­ tives and senators have been seen as men • ing knife which was strapped to hi s waist. concerned with poverty but unable just Newsmen and other policeme n said he now to find the funds necessary for a was a medic, but that did not explain his serious effort to narrow the gap between knife o r his o rder the day after the street their have and have-not constituents. As arrests for "thirty-fi ve hand fire extin­ for the war, it has been viewed as the guishers." What for, one wondered? For result of honest bungling by a group of use in lieu of gas to disperse crowds? amateurs in world diplomacy who wan­ (The Department of the Army, in its 1968 dered uncomfortably into the role of im­ manual on civil disturbance control, has perialists and whose only real fault was put out instructions for making a crowd puerile overzealousness in protecting the dispersal weapon from an ordinary fire people of South Vietnam from the ag­ extinguisher.) Or to put out fires? Fire gression of a fanatic band of communist seemed hardly a threat where the most puppets bent on ruling the world. As combustible thing in sight was as fi re­ arbiters of the world's destiny, their posi­ proof as the Washington Monument. tions, if nothing else, would seemingly 0 0 0 have forced upon many of them an en­ The belief has been defended, especial­ lightenment (even if it amounted to noth­ ly in the South, that all justice resides in ing more than self and system preserva­ Washington, that redress of an individual tion) that has never been expected of or class grievance is largely a matter of state legislators, and would have made locating within the federal structure the them more urgently concerned with the proper office or channel through which fact that their society is, among its other • one's case can best be presented. It is maladies, rotting out at the bottom. It federal legislation that has marked any did not seem unreasonable to hope that adva nce in civil ri ghts, and federal courts they could be made to see in the Poor in which individual ri ghts have been People's Campaign what Dr. King had best protected. One has not looked called, "a moral alternative to ri ots," the with much hope to Montgomery, o r to stormy aftermath of his assassination be­ Richmond, o r to Austin for leadership in ing the hardest example to date of an­ the effort to end poverty; and mayors­ other alternative. even many southern mayors - have Going to Washington with these ex­ learned to make their pleas to Congress pectations vaguely in mind - hoping in for the money they cannot expect to get effect that Washington could be con­ from their state legislatures. fronted, and then made to intervene This faith in Washington has come in agai nst itself - it soon became dis­ large part by default, a reaction to the couragingly cl ear that although the Poor daily attacks on the federal government People's Campaign at times fai led to and bureaucracy by the Wallaces and match the nobleness of its cause, the the Maddoxes and smoother proponents response of official Washington - legis­ of the notion that all ri ghts - including lators and administrators - was little the freedom to be without food or to better than the poor people might have watch one's children so ill educated they received in a state capitol. The collective can hardly read their own certificates of wisdom and sensitivity of the U. S. graduation - are wholly subject to local Congress, it turned out, does not far option. And in this atmosphere, the surpass that of the Georgia General As­ faults of an undertaking like the federal sembly, if at all. Some members, after poverty program have been raised hes­ failing to forestall the encampment of itantly, so threatening were already the poor people on public land, spent the critics even of its existence. duration of the Campaign working to see 16 NEW SOUTH/FALU1968

that they were evicted and to assure that several weeks earlier. Following what by similar encampments would never again then had become a familiar pattern, the be permitted. Powerful members who poor people departed Resurrection City t had in the past vowed never to legislate in the afternoon accompanied by their tribute to rioters or reward insurrection police escort and marched the mile and - some of them adding the use-worn a half to the department headquarters. phrase about "getting at the root prob­ The demonstrators would normally have lems"- now, even before the first cadre been stopped at the front door while of poor people arrived in the city, said their leaders and department officials they refused to work under the gun of haggled over how many of the group demonstrations. The President early ac­ would be allowed in to meet with the knowledged the "respectful" manner with cabinet member in charge. This time, which the Rev. Ralph Abernathy and the however, the entire group-some 350 other leaders had presented their de­ strong-was permitted to march directly mands (in the President's words, "view­ into an auditorium on HEW'S ground points"), gave assurances that "we have floor. Secretary Wilbur Cohen's emis­ made extensive preparations" for the en­ saries and the demonstration leaders campment, and added that "the poor would conduct their negotiations there. would be better served if Congress and As the people took their seats in the the appropriate administrative agencies auditorium and began singi ng, the police­ could have time to take proper action." men who had escorted them to the build­ This, in a May 3 press conference, was ing took positions in the corridor to the one of President johnson's few public rear and joined building guards in sealing comments on the Poor People's Cam­ off a bank of escalators leading to the paign. upper floors. Outside the building and • • • • • across the street, a police bus (windows The Department of Health, Education, barred for paddy wagon duty if neces­ and Welfare is the best example of a sary) had brought in reinforcements. Of­ Washington agency which has enjoyed fice workers stood on tiptoes peeking in a protective allegiance among civil rights from the rear of the auditorium, and advocates in the South, most notably be­ above them a number of faces were in cause it has been, since 1964, the instru­ view, jammed cheek-to-cheek in the tiny ment by which racially segregated schools windows of the film projection booth. are supposed to have been eliminated. There were rumors that the secretary In addition, as administrator of federal was not in the building, that he had al­ welfare funds, HEW's sufferable standards ready left for the day. (It was after 4:30 of what should be paid have stood out in p.m.) A vote prompted by Hosea Wil­ ugly contrast to the failure of state after liams, who had just arrived to take charge state to come up with a share that might of the demonstration, indicated that the make public assistance more, in many group was prepared to wait there until cases, than a cruel joke. Restrictions that Cohen came out to talk with them - have made the bulk of their needy citi­ to wait all night or be arrested, if neces­ zens ineligible for help traditionally have sary. come not from Washington but from Soon several of Cohen's emissaries state legislatures. came into the auditorium and whispered The purpose of the Poor People's Cam­ with Williams. Williams announced that paign demonstration at HEW, like that of Cohen was in the building and had in­ the initial demonstration at other depart­ vited him and four representatives from ments and agencies, was to receive a re­ the group to meet in his office upstairs. sponse to the demands presented by the The group promptly voted the offer Rev. Mr. Abernathy and other leaders down; "Brother Cohen" must come to PRITCHARD: THE POOR PfOPLf'S CAMPAIGN 17 th~m. The emissaries departed, leaving an said, had just been accomplished in a Su­ ass1stant secretary there who took a seat preme Court ruling; HEW would, how­ beside Williams and sat stiff-faced as the ever, continue to press for effective de­ demonstration leader opened the fl oor segregation of school systems within its to anyone who wanted to talk about jurisdiction. (later it was learned that at health, education, or welfare. the moment he was speaking a number of Sewgaf people stood to describe abuses final fund cut-off orders for recalcitrant suffered at the hands of local welfare of­ Deep South school systems were sitting ficials. Rudolfo (Corky) Gonzales spoke unsigned on Cohen's desk, some of them of land and language and culture ta ken dating back as fa r as February.) In the area from his Mexican-American people. " The of welfare, Cohen said, HEW would con­ southwestern part of the United States," tinue to encourage states to simplify their he said, "is a colonized area." Referring eligibility regulations. He was hopeful that to HEW and the government in general, pressure could be brought on Congress to he said: " If they can turn a kid into a at least postpone for a year its freeze on technician in six months o r a killer in six federal funds for state aid to dependent weeks, they can come into the ghettos, children. (This, Congress's answer to il­ the reservations, the barrios, and the legitimacy among the poor, due to have mountain vi llages and give us jobs." gone into effect this July but subsequently An elderly man dressed in overalls and postponed until 1969, will leave mothers wearing a full grey beard stood, leaning and children to the doubtful mercies of li ghtly on his cane, and delivered a state legislatures, hard prone to limit allo­ rambling account of how the government cations for welfare and now enjoined and the Social Security Administration, in from applying regulations that have served pa rti cular, had bilked him over a period to keep child assistance rolls within what of many years. He concluded the long and they consider to be an adequate budget. detailed story - the rapid midwestern Secretary Cohen reportedly had delayed twang ru shing almost to pass hi s thoughts his school fund cut-off orders to avoid and he pulling his best cues out of a past angering southern members while the that was beyond the memory of most of HEW appropriations bill was before Con­ his listeners- by laying the blame for his gress. Enforcement of a civil rights law situation and the nation's square ly on the was thus subverted by fear of the power heads of the "true villains": Wall Street of men who once had fought it openly manipulators, Eastern tycoons, and the on grounds that " morality cannot be Bank of England. legislated" and w ho have now applied It was shortly past 6 p.m. when Cohen their own notions of morality in the wel­ r finally arrived, followed into the auditori­ fare freeze law that wi ll serve to starve um by newsme n and the ubiquitous needy children, legitimate and illegitimate I mantis-like television mi crophone which alike.) hovered over hi s shoulder as he made his Repeal of the welfare freeze, Cohe n way to the front. His response to the noted, would not answer the old ques­ Campaign's demands was contained in a tion of inequali ties of welfare payments 35-page letter to the Rev. Mr. Abernathy among various states (rangi ng from less which, after introducing a trio of staff than $35.00 for the monthly sustenance members accompanying him, he sum­ of a Mi ssissippi family to mo re than marized for the group. $280.00 for a family in New Yo rk). For HEW would "give information" to state this, Cohen had a solution which he an­ and local welfare offices regarding the nounced, with some pride, he had pro­ use of "courtesy titles" in dealing with posed in a speech just the day before: a their clients. Abolition of freedom-of- federal standard administration of wel­ t'nCJ\t~ \)\a.ns \or scnoo\ desegregation, he fare by which recipients would receive NEW SOUTH/FALV1968 18 on the m," said one member of the group, the same regardless of state. a minister imm Marks, Mississippi. "1he Williams accepted the HEW response ..A for delivery to the Rev. Mr. Abernathy secretaries up there told us they had been and said he found Cohen's proposal for ordered in a memo to have nothing to do a federal welfare standard encouraging. with us if we came in the bu'rlding. Some 1hen after singing two verses of "We said they didn't have time to come c\Q'Nn Shall Overcome," the people filed out of and ta\\<. with us, that they were too busy. the auditorium and, joined by the police Then we asked why was it tney were escort, began the long walk back to Res­ never too busy to run to the windows and surrection City. watch us march by outside. There was A second visit to HEW was one of a one lady so shocked to see us walk into series of demonstrations conducted by her office she took off her glasses to get the National Welfare Rights Organization, a better look, and when she did get the which had kept small demonstrations go­ better look, she dropped the glasses." ing throughout the Campaign, most visi­ Downstairs a group of mino r officials bly during the lulls when no larger congregated at the rear of the audito riu m demonstrations left Resurrection Ci ty. until one of the demonstration leaders (The Kennedy assassination and funeral urged them to come forward and "get and complicati ons at Resurrection City acquainted with the people you're sup­ brought one six-day pe riod of virtual posed to be serving." Th ey moved for­ inaction.) This group, some 40 residents ward hesitatin gly at first but soon seemed of Resu rrection City who had a personal to relax as they chatted with the people interest in welfare, came to spend the and took notes. The sto ri es they took afternoon at HEW. Some of them wanted down indicated once again that if wel­ to learn how they could become eligible fare poses a paralyzing threat to the ini­ for public assistance, some wanted to tiative of the poor, a great many of them learn why they had been re moved from are in no danger at all : a young man from welfare ro ll s, and others wanted assist­ Birmin gham, crippled from birth, denied ance in getting their checks sent to Wash­ assistance because "they said I' m able to ington from thei r local welfare offices. work;" another from rural Alabama, dis­ After settling into the downstairs audi­ abled, in the hospital a year-and-a-half, torium-the same one used by the large saying he had been promised one doll ar demonstration-the group divided its a month "so they could say I'm being duties and went about them methodical­ helped, but I haven't seen even the dol­ ly. A small group set out for offices on lar yet." the upper floors of the building to "estab­ As the officials were listening and re­ lish the freedom of HEW," that is, to cording these experiences, a small group establish the freedom of HEW officials of more reserved looking men and a wo­ to talk with poor people and vice versa. man came into the auditorium and quiet­ Anothe r small group went to monito r ly seated themselves toward the back. an administrator who had promised to They were from the Office of Social and help expedite the payments of those who Rehabilitation Services, or, as one of them had received no checks since leaving related in a tone hushed with what home. A third group stayed in the audi­ seemed great respect, "the basic unit torium to di scuss the many obstacles in­ of the department dealing with public l I volved in being certified e li gible for as­ assistance." This, then, was the ultimate sistance. welfare office. The poor people had The group that had gone upstairs to come to the right place. "establish the freedom of HEW" was able The official (a subordinate, it turned to persuade some officials to come down ou~) who had spoken reverently of his to the auditorum. "We really put the bee OffiCe and later of his bo~~ t'j/ aS One Of PRITCHARD: THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN 19

them moved in to survey the small groups where there were few pedestrians and of officials and poor people, was asked inched its way down Independence Ave­ .. what " the basic unit'' was going to do nue past the queues of workers waiting about these people's problems. "Well," to board their suburb-bound buses. But he pondered, "it's been handled like this the songs were not penetrating the sealed before and I assume it will follow the windows to the air-conditioned space same pattern; we'll take down the com­ inside where the commuters sat, less plaints and work back through the region­ than six feet from the singers, reading al and state agencies and then report their newspapers. The freedom to speak back to this group, the NWRO. Ulti­ (or sing) indeed did not imply a right here mately, as you know, any corrective ac­ or elsewhere to be listened to, as the Rev. tion will, of course, have to come through Mr. Abernathy had said. the state agencies." The same man com­ One of the senior welfare administra­ mented on Cohen's proposed federal tors, among those of the high-level group standardization of welfare, taken at the who had appeared briefly to survey the larger demonstration as a significant new auditorium in the afternoon, was seen response to Campaign demands. "Yeah," later that evening with a companion at a he said, "the secretary first started on that restaurant in downtown Washington. After idea a couple of years ago." their second or third drink, the gist of While they were upstairs Secretary conversation became audible to a chance Cohen had invited several of the Resurrec­ eavesdropper nearby. The subject-not tion City residents into his office. They poverty or hunger or health or welfare­ returned to the auditorium with stacks of was office politics, a question of filling a brochures and booklets and an 8 x 10 clerical position apparently having tran­ autographed color photograph of the sec­ scended the flesh and blood evidence of retary standing in front of the HEW build­ the department's failure represented in ing. their offices not three hours earlier. Per­ A NWRO leader, speaking through a haps the man long ago had given up con­ bullhorn from the front of the auditori­ cerning himself with whatever part he um, said, "We came here to stay until might once have seen himself playing in we at least made a beginning on our the failure. Perhaps he had once had business. We've satisfied ourselves that hope and lost it, and now was surviving we have made a beginning. But we'll be by feeding on the various forms of ignor­ back tomorrow." Th en repeating the ing the loss. Perhaps he believed, as his theme promoted throughout the Cam­ subordinate had, that such matters as paign by NWRO, he said, "Groups like poor people and welfare really are best this one should organize and bring their handled elsewhere. Or perhaps his great­ business to local welfare offices just like est concern that evening was office pol­ we're bringing our business to HEW." itics. The upstairs windows were crowded 0 0 0 with office workers watching as the peo­ The Poor People's Campaign was ple boarded their yellow school bus for unique among the several assemblages of the ride back to Resurrection City. As the Americans this summer, a season in which bus entered rush-hour traffic, the people the demand for " participatory democ­ began singing. The songs were old ones racy" was heard in many quarters. Stand­ with appropriate variations-"l'm gonna ards of membership were simple and par­ lay down my shuffling shoes, down by ticipation was virtually unlimited. Anyone the welfare door, down by the welfare who wanted to join perhaps the last pur­ door. Ain' t gonna shuffle my feet no suit of America's agile conscience, ques­ more." The volume of the singing in­ tionably represented in Washington, was creased as the bus left the Mall area free to come along. Although the judg- 20 NEW SOUTH/FALL/1968 -. ment may be made that its I e ad e r s have been only for catastrophe, despite brought the Campaign's slow decline up­ every objective indication of an accelerat­ on themselves, it also is true but not so ing trend in that direction. obvious that a mammoth corporation like But a grieving mass did not rally and Lockheed Aircraft is really no more effici­ the Poor People's Campaign could not. ently constituted than Resurrection City, Pressu res-violent or not, it did not seem the aircraft makers' cost-plus defense con­ to matter-won no victories for the poor tracts providing much of the cushion that in 1968. Civil disobedience moved well takes up what many employees readily into the new lexicon and emerged (along admit is an incredible waste of time, en­ with terms like " permissiveness") to mean ergy, and direction, and is for some de­ a license to shoot policemen. structive of a needed sense of place and In the end it seemed silly to have spec­ achievement. ulated back in February that Washington In its early stages especially there was might try to kill the Poor People's Cam­ much more hope within the Campaign paign with kindness, that the lawmakers than among outside observers, who saw might act quickly to draw up bills aimed no prospect of movi ng an election-year at satisfying the Campaign's basic de­ Congress in which the poverty program mands, guarantees of a decent job or a had always surpassed poverty itself as an decent income-goals that were in full iss ue. When they bundled their belong­ accord not only with justice and pre­ ings into cardboard boxes and hoisted cedent but also with accepted concepts their children aboard the Greyhounds of subsi dizing the non-poor that are as and mule wagons in June, many of the old as the Republic itself. poor people set out for Washington fully The fact that the poor people had believing that by the end of the summer come to Washington asking first of all -by fall at the latest-their efforts there for jobs went almost unnoticed and sur­ would have brought nothing less than the prisingly so since the solution most gen­ end of American poverty. erally offered by legislators for ending In the hours of marathon eulogies im­ poverty is to put people to work. The mediately following Dr. King's assassina­ demand for jobs, however, was over­ tion, America was exposed to its finest shadowed by its corollary, calling for an lesson in his philosophy, and the choice adeq uate income to be guaranteed to he had offered between chaos and com­ everyone who should not work - munity was more generally understood mothers, children, the disabled and the then than ever it had been when the sick. Official Washington did not give prospect for his success had seemed se rious consideration to meeting either much greater. It was not idle at that of these basic demands. moment to indulge in the seemingly final It was the hardest indictment of the hope that now at last the nation would nation not only that its least powerful rally to redeem itself. Rational people citizens should continue to be forced to discussed the possibility of marshalling live in poverty but now also that they hundreds of thousands of people, not had to be the ones to come hungry to necessarily poor people, to present them­ this seat of affluent power demanding selves at the White House or Congress food of a society that calls itself civilized every month until something of a repara­ and allows children to starve. Perhaps tion was forced from those high places. the clearest measure of response to the One was so conditioned by the conspir­ Campaign was that the poor finally had ing events of the spring and summer, he to settle for hunger as their issue of con­ could expect anything, and even the least frontation, and it was a condemnable promising hopes clung to the faith that nation, rendering its verdict in super­ somehow the expectations need not yet abundance, that denied them victory.