politicalsci:

“We should realize that the problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Poor People’s Campaign was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. It was organized by Martin Luther King, Jr., and was the last campaign he was working on before he was assassinated in April 1968. King shifted his focus to these issues after observing that gains in civil rights had not improved the material conditions of life for many African Americans.

The Poor People’s Campaign was a multiracial effort—including African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Appalachian White people, and Native Americans—aimed at alleviating poverty regardless of race. Just as King began his multiracial campaign for economic justice he was murdered.