All was set for the start of the Poor People’s Campaign in April of 1968. But with the assassination of King on April 4, everything changed. SCLC leaders, including King’s widow Coretta, debated whether or not the movement should still take place. It was eventually decided that while King had died, the need to fight against poverty had not. Reverend Ralph Abernathy, as new president of the SCLC, took over leadership and pushed back the start date to May 12.[5] It seemed like the right decision. Shortly before the demonstrators were to arrive in D.C., he was granted a temporary permit by the National Park Service for 3,000 people to set up camp in the grassy area to the south of the Reflecting Pool: the perfect location.[6]
Within a few days, Abernathy drove the first stake of Resurrection City and construction officially started. Working off of a plan by architect John Wiebenson, SCLC members and workers from the Department of the Interior quickly began to erect more than 650 plywood and plastic-sheeting huts. Their city would have three dining facilities, a medical tent, a nursery, a city hall, and more. A small government was even constructed, to be led by “mayor” and SCLC member Jesse Jackson. This leadership contingent was in charge of organizing demonstrations and overseeing the management of the city’s “marshals” responsible for security.[7] But even with everything laid out, it takes more than a few days to construct a city. Before Resurrection City could open its doors, the starting day of the campaign arrived.
On May 12, 5,000 individuals flocked to D.C. for a Mother’s Day March, led by Coretta Scott King. The march hoped to jumpstart the movement by enlisting the support of “black women, white women, brown women, and red women – all the women of this nation – in the campaign of conscience” to end poverty.[8] It was a success. While many of the protesters came simply for the march, others decided to stay.
Local schools and churches stepped up to shelter the marchers until Resurrection City was in a livable condition. In the meantime, the nation’s poor continued to file in. The SCLC had recruited demonstrators from five southern states and ten major northern cities, and caravans were rolling in from Marks, Mississippi to New York City. The crowd was two-thirds African American, with the other third consisting primarily of whites.[9]