I’m a little confused. You said Martin Luther King was shot to death. But didn’t he make some kind of speech in Washington?
Right.
In 1963 there was a gathering called the March on Washington. There were several speakers but the featured one was Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
I’ve got a poster on my office wall with the complete text. There are many memorable lines, but one that is often repeated goes like this:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream …”
That’ sounds familiar.
I didn’t get to that event. I think it drew maybe a couple of hundred thousand.
But I did get to another event. Early in 1968 Dr. King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy began planning what was called the Poor People’s Campaign.
They got out flyers and wanted to include many ethnic groups.
They wanted to call on Washington to do something about the poor economic conditions in the country.
But, as I told you, Dr. King was assassinated in April of that year. So Rev. Abernathy carried along with the planning. People came from all over the country, and they set up a tent city around the area.
And it drew quite a crowd too.
See me in that crowd? Just kidding.
How did it work out?
There were a few things accomplished. Some food programs got a little more funding. Like school lunches. But not too much.
Why not?
Mainly the Vietnam War. So much of the country’s resources was going to find that war that there wasn’t much left for the home-front. They called it a guns-or-butter issue.
I’ve heard the phrase.
Yeah. It was a sad time in our history.