In November 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. and the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) met to discuss the direction of the movement following the passage of civil rights legislation, the emergence of Black Power, and the urban riots of the previous summer. SCLC decided to launch the Poor People's Campaign, a movement to broadly address economic inequalities with nonviolent direct action. The campaign was not launched until after King's 1968 assassination, however, and the absence of King's leadership was believed to have compromised the campaign's effectiveness. The Poor People's Campaign ended in June 1968 without making a significant impact on the nation's economic policies.
The idea for the Poor People's Campaign grew out of what King termed the "second phase" of the civil rights struggle. After the "first phase" had exposed the problems of segregation through nonviolence, King hoped to address what he called the "limitations to our achievements" with a second phase. In its ideology and style, the Poor People's Campaign demonstrated a merging of the first-phase tactics into second-phase goals. Through nonviolent direct action, King and SCLC hoped to focus the nation on economic inequality and poverty. The campaign also differed from previous SCLC campaigns in that it aimed to address the struggles of a cross-section of minority groups. "It must not be just black people," argued King, "it must be all poor people. We must include American Indians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and even poor whites."
SCLC planned the Poor People's Campaign to be the most massive, widespread campaign of civil disobedience yet undertaken by a movement. They aimed to bring 1,500 protesters to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress and other governmental agencies for an "economic bill of rights." Specifically, the campaign requested a $30 billion anti-poverty package that would include a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure, and increased construction of low-income housing. Protest activities in Washington were to be supported by simultaneous demonstrations throughout the country. Despite division within SCLC over the campaign's feasibility, King embraced the campaign and traveled across the country speaking on poverty and conducted "people-to-people tours" to recruit participants.
After King’s assassination on 4 April 1968, the King family and SCLC leadership decided to go on with the campaign to honor King. On 12 May 1968 the first wave of demonstrators arrived in Washington, D.C. One week later, Resurrection City was built on the Washington Mall, a settlement of tents and shacks to house the protesters. Demonstrators were sent out to various federal agencies to protest and spread the message of the campaign. Although Ralph Abernathy had taken over as SCLC president fol lowing King's death, the campaign's leadership lacked the momentum that King might have provided. The combined setbacks of bad press, Robert Kennedy's assassination, and an overwhelming number of protesters (7,000 at its peak) further limited the campaign's effectiveness. Failing to force a response from legislators, the Poor People's Campaign closed camp on 19 June 1968.