The Last March of Martin Luther King Jr.
In the months leading up to his assassination 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made some of his most searing pronouncements against white supremacy, the Vietnam War, and U.S. imperialism. But more than at any other time in his life, King’s final focus was on poverty and economic injustice.
By the winter of 1968, Dr. King and his organization were embarking on one of their boldest projects yet, a Poor People’s Campaign that would bring a multiracial coalition to the nation’s capital to demand federal funding for full employment, a guaranteed annual income, anti-poverty programs, and housing for the poor. Announcing their new initiative, King said, “The Southern Christian Leadership Conference [SCLC] will lead waves of the nation’s poor and disinherited to Washington, D.C., next spring to demand redress of their grievances by the United States government and to
