The Last Crusade: Martin Luther King, Jr., the FBI, and the Poor People's Campaign

2001 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 901
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Dickerson ◽  
Gerald D. McKnight
2019 ◽  
pp. 219-248
Author(s):  
Lorena Oropeza

The massive news coverage of the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse Raid catapulted Reies López Tijerina to the national civil rights stage almost instantly but only briefly. In the wake of the raid, Chicano movement participants felt empowered by his insistence that Spanish-speakers had a historic claim to the American Southwest. Soon he enjoyed invitations from Martin Luther King, Jr. to participate in the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. For a short while, he also benefited from the advice of Maria Varela, a veteran civil rights activist. Yet in D.C. during the Poor People’s Campaign, the glare of publicity also exposed his autocratic tendencies and massive ego. Thrilled by the post-raid attention, Tijerina’s aspirations only grew. He eagerly spoke of moving beyond the land-rights agenda of the the Alianza Federal de Mercedes, the organization he had led since 1963.


Author(s):  
Andries G. Van Aarde

Resistance against power: The pilgrim’s journey in three Sondergut parables in Luke 15 and 16. The aim of this essay is to explain the philosophical viewpoints of Michel Foucault concerning the power of knowledge and its consequences when individuals are subjectified into ‘docile bodies’. According to this perspective, resistance against power commences when the little stories of individuals are told in opposition to the master narratives of ideologies of power. The essay refers to Steve Biko and Martin Luther King whose stories of resistance against racism as an ideology of power serve as examples. Their examples of resistance are hermeneutically and heuristically applied to the interpretation of the parables in Luke 15 and 16. These parables are peculiar to Luke’s theology. The essay exposes the subjectifying of the identities of the ‘lost son’ and ‘father’, the ‘master’ and ‘steward’, and the ‘rich man’ and the ‘poor man’, as these heteronormative categories occur in parabolic stories in Luke 15 and 16. The essay concludes with a vision for Christians today on how to recognise power relationships and how to respond in a non-violent way to the dominant ideologies promoting power.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Robert Hamilton

As well as being a civil rights advocate, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr consistently called for human rights for all. He opposed poverty, racism, imperialism and political disfranchisement as part of an analysis, which viewed inequality not only in American but also in global terms. In order to address poverty and related human rights issues, King proposed a Poor People’s Campaign (PPC). In May 1968, only weeks after King’s assassination, the PPC saw thousands of poor people travel to Washington DC to protest against poverty. The demonstrators occupied sacred space in the nation’s capital by building a temporary community, known as Resurrection City. During preparations for the PPC and in Washington, the activists drew on a rich legacy of adult education from previous civil rights campaigns. The approaches adopted by PPC participants were innovative and represented alternatives to conventional educational practices. These included Freedom Schools, a Poor People’s University, workshops, marches and demonstrations, which assisted the protesters to come together in coalition to challenge dominant hegemonic narratives concerning the causes, nature and scope of poverty. Although ultimately unsuccessful in its aspiration to end economic injustice in America, the PPC undoubtedly laid the seeds for future anti-poverty activism. The article draws on primary source documents and oral testimonies from five archives.


Worldview ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
Andrew Young

We who have dared associate ourselves with the cause of “the least of these,” our brethren around the world, those of us who, by circumstance or choice, find ourselves in sympathy with the struggling aspirations of the poor, the moans and cries of the oppressed, the pain and suffering of the diseased, know that somehow we on this earth have got to learn to live together as brothers.Many of us learned these lessons at the side of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We saw how things happened to him. One of the reasons that 1 am able to be involved at the United Nations is because of the inspiration I drew from the association with Dr. King and the strength and understanding I saw him draw from ordinary people and the people who strengthened him to carry on.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 24-35
Author(s):  
Valeria Sinclair-Chapman ◽  
Harry Targ

Abstract This article examines a model of fusion politics that connects activism to end poverty, and addresses a constellation of social injustices across more than a half century in the United States. We consider an articulation of fusion politics that highlights the actions of disparate groups and individuals, including youth, racial and ethnic minorities, women, LGBT activists, teachers, and union members who have joined in a cooperative effort to address independent but linked concerns such as quality public schools, livable wages, affordable healthcare, environmental justice, immigrant rights, women’s reproductive rights, fair elections, and criminal justice. Our analysis points out the historical links between the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, the Rainbow Coalition of the 1980s, and the new Poor People’s Campaign launched in 2018. It draws heavily on the words and writings of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Reverend William Barber, II in understanding the organizing, objectives, and transformative potential of these movements.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document