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Pacifica Radio, the progressive public radio network, occasionally opens its archives for the show "From the Vault."
Apropos for today is the episode in which they discuss Martin Luther King Jr.'s planning in the Spring of 1968 for a Poor People's March on Washington that he would not live to make.
Dr. King would not live to see the March. But thanks to the efforts of the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, who took over the leadership role of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and others such as Jesse Jackson, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, poor people from around the country began their trip to Washington, DC by any way they could manage. For most of these poor people, this trip was an enormous financial sacrifice, yet a necessary burden -- they would hand-deliver their message to Washington. Some of this journey was recorded by Pacifica producer Arthur Alexander along the road from Memphis Tennessee to Washington DC.The former, safe and stable housing for low-income families, is still an immediate concern, especially in the wake of the economic crisis in 2008.
Click on this link to listen to the story, which includes interviews from many who made the march.
--Monica Potts
