1968 Poor People's Campaign button

A rare button from the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. This campaign came at the suggestion of  Marion Wright, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Jackson, Mississippi, the Poor People’s Campaign was seen by King as the next chapter in the struggle for genuine equality.

Desegregation and the right to vote were essential, but King believed that African Americans and other minorities would never enter full citizenship until they had economic security. Through nonviolent direct action, King and SCLC hoped to focus the nation’s attention on economic inequality and poverty.

“This is a highly significant event,” King told delegates at an early planning meeting, describing the campaign as “the beginning of a new co-operation, understanding, and a determination by poor people of all colors and backgrounds to assert and win their right to a decent life and respect for their culture and dignity” (SCLC, 15 March 1968).

Many leaders of American Indian, Puerto Rican, Mexican American, and poor white communities pledged themselves to the Poor People’s Campaign.Marion Wright and was run by Dr. Martin Luther King.

More information about the campaign is available here: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/poor-peoples-campaign