MLK the Disrupter and the Poor People’s Campaign

The Dive

By the late 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. had achieved victories that many thought impossible—ending legal segregation in public facilities and securing federal protection for voting rights. Yet King understood that racial equality meant little without economic security. Black and white Americans alike were still trapped in poverty, working low-wage jobs, or unable to find work at all.

King’s activism had always been disruptive in the best sense of the word. The Birmingham campaign of 1963 deliberately filled jails with nonviolent protesters to force negotiations over segregation. These tactics upset those in power but proved effective in drawing national attention and pressuring leaders to act.

By 1967, King had expanded his vision. He spoke out against the Vietnam War, arguing that the nation could not fight for freedom abroad while denying justice at home. He also began pushing for economic justice—calling for guaranteed jobs, a living wage, and affordable housing. These positions were controversial, even among allies, because they directly challenged entrenched economic and political interests.

The Poor People’s Campaign was the embodiment of this broader vision. Planned by King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, it aimed to bring thousands of poor Americans—Black, white, Latino, and Native American—to Washington, D.C., for a massive, sustained protest. The idea was to occupy the capital in 'Resurrection City,' a tent community, until lawmakers acted on demands for economic reform.

King saw this as the 'next phase' of the Civil Rights Movement—moving from civil rights to human rights. He called for a 'revolution of values' that would confront the 'giant triplets' of racism, poverty, and militarism. This was not simply about passing another law; it was about changing the moral direction of the nation.

The campaign faced enormous challenges. King was assassinated in April 1968 before the protest began, dealing a devastating blow to morale and leadership. The campaign went forward under Ralph Abernathy, but without King’s unifying presence and amid government resistance, it struggled to achieve its ambitious goals.

Why It Matters

King’s final campaign reminds us that justice is interconnected—civil rights, economic opportunity, and peace cannot be separated—and that true leadership often means speaking truths people would rather ignore. His work in these final years offers a powerful lesson in how movements evolve: addressing one injustice often exposes the deeper systems that uphold it, and dismantling those systems, such as systemic poverty, requires more than legal reform; it demands the courage to challenge the status quo at its very foundations.