How Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has affected my life.

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In Dr. Martin Luther King’s lifetime, there were many things done to help all peoples, but mostly for poor and uneducated people. Here is an example of how his works have affected my life, today.

In late 1967, Dr. King started a Poor People’s Campaign designed to deal with economic problems that had not been addressed by earlier civil rights reforms. The idea for the Poor People's campaign grew out of what King named the "second phase" of the civil rights struggle. Through nonviolent direct action, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) hoped to focus the nation on economic inequality and poverty. The campaign also was different from earlier SCLC campaigns, as it aimed to address the struggles of a cross-section of minority groups. "It must not be just black people," argued Dr. King, "it must be all poor people, including Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and poor whites.”

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The SCLC also intended the Poor People's Campaign to be the most gigantic, widespread campaign of civil disobedience yet taken on by a movement. They aimed to lobby the U. S. Congress and other governmental agencies for an “Economic Bill of Rights”, which would include full-time job commitment, a guaranteed yearly income measure, and more construction of low-income housing. The following year, while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, on April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated after he delivered his final speech, "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”.

The King family and SCLC leadership decided to go on with ...

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