On this day in 1968: MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign rallies in Detroit

On May 13, 1968, Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign was carried out without him in Detroit. America’s leading civil rights leader was murdered on April 4 of that year. 

The objective of the national effort was to gain “economic justice” for poor people in the United States. It was organized by King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King’s supporters decided that the march would continue after the 39-year-old’s untimely death. U.S. Rep. Charles Diggs Jr. (D-Detroit) attended. So did Democrat G. Mennen “Soapy” Williams, a former Michigan governor and Kennedy and Johnson administration official.

“We ought to come in mule carts, in old trucks, any kind of transportation people can get their hands on,” said King about the effort. “People ought to come to Washington, sit down, if necessary, in the middle of the street and say, ‘We are here; we are poor; we don’t have any money; you have made us this way … and we’ve come to stay until you do something about it.'”

Hundreds participated in the effort that traveled down Woodward Avenue and ended in downtown Detroit. They hoisted placards that read, “Eliminate American Colonialism” and “Bread beats bullets.” Marchers and police clashed at Cobo Hall, located in the city’s convention center.

Hosea Williams, a member of the SCLC executive board, called Detroit “a dungeon of shame” nearly a year after civil unrest erupted in the Motor City.  

“Detroit has just put herself No. 1 on the civil rights list as far as the SCLC is concerned,” he said, according to Associated Press.

Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, a liberal Democrat, offered a welcome to those who had traveled to Detroit to participate.

“The citizens of this community endorse the objectives of your drive and will demonstrate that support — not only while you are in our city but also when you leave by adding 200 people to your number,” said Cavanagh, according to Detroit American news reporting.

“No one can doubt the importance of what you are doing,” Cavanagh added. “Your aims are beyond dispute. Your method is beyond reproach: the peaceful petition of our government for a redress of grievances.”

Once the effort reached Washington, D.C., participants set up a protest camp on the Washington Mall, where they stayed for six weeks in the spring of 1968, beginning May 14 until federal officials forced protesters to leave and dismantled their tents.