Solidarity Now! 1968 Poor Peoples Campaign
Opens May 17, 2024 in ALPLM’s Illinois Gallery – Closes August 18, 2024
Solidarity Now! 1968 Poor People's Campaign explores one of the most important grassroots movements of the civil rights era: the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. The exhibition investigates the factors that made this movement a success: the ideas, the emotions, the people, and the place—Resurrection City. Through a moving combination of photographs, objects, video, and oral histories, it explores the significance and impact of this campaign that drew thousands of people to develop a protest community on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to call the nation's attention to the crippling effects of poverty for millions of Americans.
This traveling exhibit was created by the Smithsonian Institution
National sponsor: CVS Health Foundation
Women and family issues were central among the concerns of the Poor People's Campaign. Women not only helped shape the antipoverty movement’s goals, but they also created new models for social movement leadership. Learn more about the movement now at (VENUE)! #1968CampaignForPoor
Building a City of Hope! As the Poor People’s Campaign demonstrators arrived in Washington, D.C., in May of 1968, they built an encampment and protest community on the National Mall. The two young men pictured here were among the demonstrators.
Organizers chose the 16-acre site between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument to construct a “City of Hope” that included plywood tents for housing and community space shelters for dining, childcare, healthcare, performances, and town meetings. They called the encampment Resurrection City—a message in flesh, bone, nails, and lumber that gave voice and visibility to poverty. #1968CampaignForPoor