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 the campaign after Dr. King’ s death, to honor King, but the absence of King’s leadership was believed to have affected the campaign's success. The Poor People's Campaign failed to force a response from legislators, and ended in June 1968 without making a major impact on the nation's economic policies.
Although the racial violence that erupted in many cities, states and Washington, D.C. resulted in many deaths with millions of dollars in losses from the extensive property damage, there was change. NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins countered “Black Power” advocate, Stokely Carmichael, that King would have been "outraged" by the disorders and that "millions of Negroes in this country" were opposed to the violence. Wilkins then announced a nationwide campaign against racial violence emphasizing jobs for the unemployed and better community relations. Now, President Johnson urged unity. Many sporting events, Hollywood's Oscar Awards Ceremony, and the Presidential nomination campaigns were all postponed. Reverend Ralph Abernathy, chosen to succeed King as SCLC President, successfully led the Memphis sanitation workers and the city of Memphis in reaching a settlement of the 65-day strike.
Because of the economic and educational changes made through the years that affected my great-grandparents, grandparents, and my parents, I can see why there are so many possibilities for myself. With the opportunity to go to good schools, I can get as good as an education as I want. Now, I can be able to reach for that dream that my fore-parents only had the chance to wish for.
HOW
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr.
HAS AFFECTED MY LIFE