Martin Luther King Jr.

===Poor People's Campaign, 1968===
{{Main|Poor People's Campaign}}
[[File:Resurrection City Washington D.C. 1968.jpg|alt=Rows of tents|thumb|A shantytown established in Washington, D.C. to protest economic conditions as a part of the [[Poor People's Campaign]]]]

In 1968, King and the SCLC organized the "[[Poor People's Campaign]]" to address issues of economic justice. King traveled the country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would march on Washington to engage in nonviolent [[civil disobedience]] at the Capitol until Congress created an "economic bill of rights".<ref>{{cite book| first= Ernesto B.|last=Vigil|title=The Crusade for Justice: Chicano Militancy and the Government's War on Dissent|page= 54| publisher =University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=0-299-16224-9|year=1999}}</ref><ref name=lied>{{cite book|last= Kick|first= Russell |page=[https://archive.org/details/You_Are_Being_Lied_To_-_The_Disinformation_Guide_to_Media_Distortion_Historical_/page/1991 1991]|isbn=0-9664100-7-6 |publisher=The Disinformation Campaign|year=2001|title=You are Being Lied to: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths|url=https://archive.org/details/You_Are_Being_Lied_To_-_The_Disinformation_Guide_to_Media_Distortion_Historical_/page/1991}}</ref>

The campaign was preceded by King's final book, ''[[Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?]]'' which laid out his view of how to address social issues and poverty. King quoted from [[Henry George]]'s book ''[[Progress and Poverty]]'', particularly in support of a [[basic income|guaranteed basic income]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sullivan|first1=Dan|title=Where Was Martin Luther King Heading?|url=http://savingcommunities.org/issues/race/king.martin.html|website=savingcommunities.org|access-date=January 20, 2015|archive-date=April 15, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415091914/http://savingcommunities.org/issues/race/king.martin.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Martin Luther King&nbsp;– Final Advice |url=http://www.progress.org/tpr/martin-luther-king-final-advice/ |date=January 9, 2007 |website=The Progress Report |access-date=February 4, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204201039/https://www.progress.org/tpr/martin-luther-king-final-advice/ |archive-date=February 4, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Yglesias|first1=Matthew|title=Martin Luther King's Case for a Guaranteed Basic Income|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/08/28/martin_luther_king_guaranteed_basic_income.html|access-date=January 20, 2015|work=Slate|date=August 28, 2013|archive-date=January 20, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120082638/http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/08/28/martin_luther_king_guaranteed_basic_income.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The campaign culminated in a march on Washington, D.C., demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of the U.S.

King and the SCLC called on the government to invest in rebuilding America's cities. He felt that Congress had shown "hostility to the poor" by spending "military funds with alacrity and generosity". He contrasted this with the situation faced by poor Americans, claiming that Congress had merely provided "poverty funds with miserliness".<ref name=lied/> His vision was for change that was more revolutionary than mere reform: he cited systematic flaws of "racism, poverty, militarism and materialism", and argued that "reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced."{{sfn|Lawson|Payne|Patterson|2006|pp=148–49}}

The Poor People's Campaign was controversial even within the civil rights movement. Rustin resigned from the march, stating that the goals of the campaign were too broad, that its demands were unrealizable, and that he thought that these campaigns would accelerate repression on the poor and the black.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington|url=https://archive.org/details/otheramericanlif0000isse|url-access=registration|last=Isserman|first=Maurice|page=[https://archive.org/details/otheramericanlif0000isse/page/281 281]|isbn=1-58648-036-7|publisher=Public Affairs|year=2001}}</ref>